1 


BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


THE 


CONQUEST  OF  ARID  AMERICA 


BY 


WILLIAM    E.   SMYTHE 


ILLUSTRATED 


HARPER   &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

NEW   YORK  AND   LONDON 

IQOO 


•cr  \ 


Copyright,  1900,  by  WILLIAM  E.  SMYTHK. 

All  right t  r  tuned,. 


'     1  " 

IBRAKY 


TO 

MY    WIFE 


CONTENTS 


PART   FIRST 

CHAPTER                COLONIAL   EXPANSION   AT   HOME  PAGE 

I.  GREATNESS  BY  CONTINENTAL  CONQUEST 3 

II.  THE   HOME  -  BUILDING   INSTINCT    OP  THE    AMERICAN 

PEOPLE 12 

III.  THE  BETTER  HALF  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  ....  19 

IV.  THE  BLESSING  OP  ARIDITY 30 

V.  THE  MIRACLE  OP  IRRIGATION  41 


PART  SECOND 

HEAL   UTOPIAS   OF  THE   AllID   WEST 

I.  THE  MORMON  COMMONWEALTH 51 

II.  THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OP  COLORADO 77 

III.  THE  EVOLUTION  OP  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA    ....  92 

IV.  THE  REVOLUTION  ON  THE  PLAINS  .  106 


PART   THIRD 

UNDEVELOPED   AMERICA 

I.  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA.    . 121 

II.  THE  NEW  DAY  IN  COLORADO 150 

III.  THE  PLEASANT  LAND  OP  UTAH 164 

IV.  THE  CRUDE  STRENGTH  OP  IDAHO 174 

V^  ARID  WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON 185 

VI.  THE  POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OP  NEVADA  194 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTKR  PAGE 

VII.  WYOMING,  LAW-GIVER  OF  THE  ARID  REGION    .    .    .  207 

VIII.  THE  PROSPERITY  OP  MONTANA 222 

IX.  THE  AWAKENING  OP  NEW  MEXICO 228 

X.  THE  BUDDING  CIVILIZATION  OP  ARIZONA     .  237 


PART  FOURTH 

THE   ARMY   OF   THE   HALF-EMPLOYED 

I.  THE  SURPLUS  PEOPLE 247 

II.  WHY  THE  PEOPLE  Do  NOT  Go  TO  THE  LAND  ...  253 

III.  COLONIZATION  WITH  CO-OPERATIVE  CAPITAL    ...  260 

IV.  COLONY  PLANS  AND  INSTITUTIONS 276 

V.  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OP  CO-OPERATIVE  SETTLEMENT  285 

VI.  ADJUSTING  OLD  IDEALS  TO  NEW  CONDITIONS   .    .    .  298 

VII.  LOOKING  FORWARD  TO  THE  GREATER  REPUBLIC  .  308 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  AS  TO  METHODS  OP  IRRIGATION   .  ,311 


INDEX  321 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  TYPICAL  MOUNTAIN  STREAM  IN  THE  ARID  REGION 
—  MOUTH  OP  ECHO  CANYON,  UTAH,  SHOWING 
WEBER  RIVER Frontispiece 

CALIFORNIA  CONTRAST — PICKING  FLOWERS  AT  PASA- 
DENA, WITH  THE  SNOW  SEVEN  FEET  DEEP  ON 
MOUNT  WILSON Facing  p.  94 

IRRIGATING  SEVEN  HUNDRED  ACRES  OF  LEMON-TREES 

AT  SAN  DIEGO,  CALIFORNIA "  138 

ARTESIAN   WELL  AT  ZILLAH,    WASHINGTON      ....  "  188 

FURROW  IRRIGATION  FOR  VEGETABLES  AT  EXPERI- 
MENT STATION,  WYOMING "  214 

DIVISION  BOX  AT  BOZEMAN,  MONTANA,  SHOWING 
METHOD  OF  TURNING  WATER  INTO  LATERALS 
FOB  IRRIGATING  THE  FIELD  .  "  224 


MAPS 

ARID  AMERICA Facing}}.  24 

ARID   AMERICA   (THE   STRIKING    SIMILARITY   BETWEEN 

PALESTINE  AND  SALT  LAKE  VALLEY,    UTAH)     .      .           "  54 

LOCATION  OF  CO-OPERATIVE  INDUSTRIES   IN  IRELAND          "  292 


PREFACE 


THE  man  who  removes  from  a  crowded  neighbor- 
hood in  New  England  to  a  sparsely  settled  locality 
in  the  Far  West  will  be  struck  with  the  immensity 
of  the  country  which  awaits  settlement  and  develop- 
ment. He  will  not  be  long  in  discovering  that  the 
new  land  possesses  certain  advantages  of  climate, 
soil,  and  other  natural  resources  over  the  place 
whence  he  came.  If  he  has  the  slightest  interest  in 
social  and  economic  things,  he  will  find  himself  specu- 
lating on  the  anomaly  of  surplus  people  in  one  place 
and  surplus  land  in  another — on  the  stern  fact  of  a 
region  of  landless  man  and  a  region  of  manless  land, 
and  both  under  the  same  flag.  Such  was  the  author's 
experience ;  hence  this  book. 

The  materials  for  this  sketch  have  been  gathered 
by  ten  years  of  life,  work,  and  study  in  various  parts 
of  the  West.  During  that  period  the  writer's  oppor- 
tunities to  observe  resources  and  institutions  were 
unusually  favorable,  since  his  work  as  editor  of  The 
Irrigation  Age  and  an  officer  of  the  National  Irriga- 
tion Congress  took  him  repeatedly  to  all  the  States 

ix 


PREFACE 

and  Territories  of  the  arid  region  and  to  nearly  every 
valley  or  settlement  of  special  interest.  These  oppor- 
tunities were  utilized  to  the  fullest  extent.  The  his- 
tory of  colonies  has  more  often  been  learned  from 
the  lips  of  pioneers  than  from  books  or  documents. 
The  causes  of  successes  and  failures  in  settlement, 
and  the  merits  of  various  social  and  industrial  plans 
suggested  in  these  pages  as  best  adapted  to  future 
colonization  effort,  have  been  discussed  at  many  a 
western  fireside  with  the  men  and  women  who  are 
dealing  practically  with  such  problems.  If  this  por- 
tion of  the  book  has  any  value,  it  consists  in  the  fact 
that  on  every  possible  occasion  it  has  been  discussed 
with  the  earnest  people  who  are  themselves  engaged 
in  making  homes  in  western  valleys. 

A  list  of  those  who  have  been  helpful  to  the  author 
in  assembling  the  facts  used  in  these  pages  would  in- 
clude nearly  all  the  men  prominent  in  the  irrigation 
work  of  the  western  States.  It  is  not  unfair,  how- 
ever, to  make  especial  mention  of  the  author's  obliga- 
tions to  Frederick  H.  Newell,  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey ;  to  Elwood  Mead,  State  Engineer 
of  Wyoming ;  to  A.  Milton  Musser,  historian  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  and  to  David  Boyd,  historian  of 
the  Greeley  Colony,  Colorado. 

Of  the  books  which  have  been  most  useful  in  fur- 
nishing light  for  the  larger  aspects  of  the  subject,  Mr. 
Douglas  Campbell's  The  Puritan  in  England,  Hol- 
land, and  America,  Mr.  Theodore  Koosevelt's  The 
Winning  of  the  West,  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie's  Tri- 


PREFACE 

umphant   Democracy,   and  M.  Edinond   Demolins's 
Anglo-Saxon  Superiority,  are  gratefully  mentioned. 

Certain  chapters  of  the  book  first  appeared  as 
contributions  to  The  Century  Magazine,  The  Atlan- 
tic Monthly,  The  Forum,  and  The  North  American 
Review,  and  the  author  is  indebted  to  the  courtesy 
of  the  editors  of  those  magazines  for  the  right  to  re- 
produce them  here. 

The  acceptance  which  the  author's  work  on  similar 
lines  has  found  in  American  periodicals,  and  the  fact 
of  a  wider  interest  evidenced  by  translations  into  three 
foreign  languages,  is  one  reason  for  the  publication  of 
this  book.  But  a  better  one  is  the  author's  convic- 
tion that  the  time  is  ripe  for  the  occupation  of  the 
great  West  by  the  masses  of  our  people,  and  his 
earnest  hope  that  this  book  will  be  of  some  value  in 
throwing  light  upon  their  pathway  to  homes  and 
independence. 

WILLIAM  E.  SMYTIIE. 

STANDISH,  CALIFOHNIA,  August,  1899. 


1 


INTEODUCTION 


THE   TWENTIETH -CENTUEY   OPPORTUNITY 

THE  true  opportunity  of  the  American  people  lies 
not  in  the  tropical  islands  of  the  Pacific  and  Carib- 
bean, but  in  the  vast  unsettled  regions  of  their  own 
country.  Their  true  mission  is  not  to  impose  their 
dominion  upon  distant  lands  and  alien  peoples,  but  to 
work  out  the  highest  forms  of  civilization  for  their 
own  race  and  nationality. 

The  advocates  of  colonial  expansion  abroad  argue 
that  hitherto  we  have  been  engaged  in  the  conquest 
of  this  continent,  and  declare  that  this  work  is  now 
done.  But  it  is  not  done.  There  is  room  for  one 
hundred  million  people  in  the  States  and  Territories 
between  the  Missouri  river  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In 
that  vast  region  there  is  a  population  of  but  three  to 
the  square  mile,  while  in  the  Philippine  Islands  there 
are  sixty,  a  density  of  settlement  twenty  times  as 
great. 

But  the  material  opportunity  is  neither  the  single 
nor  the  most  urgent  claim  of  Arid  America  to  the 

xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

nation's  attention.  It  offers  the  best  field  in  all  the 
world  for  the  expansion  of  ideas  and  the  development 
of  institutions.  This  is  no  less  important  to  mankind 
than  the  expansion  of  trade  and  the  development  of 
natural  resources. 

Under  the  policy  of  continental  solidarity  and  of 
holding  aloof  from  the  political  entanglements  of 
Europe  and  Asia,  the  American  people  have  grown 
rich  and  populous  beyond  any  other  nation  in  history. 
If  they  now  choose  to  abandon  the  course  which  led 
them  to  greatness  by  the  shortest  and  easiest  path,  it 
is  not  because  they  are  compelled  by  physical  limita- 
tions to  seek  another  field  for  expansion.  Or  if  they 
abandon  republican  for  imperialistic  ideals  it  is  not 
because  the  former  lacks  favorable  soil  in  which  to 
plant  and  nurture  new  growths  suited  to  the  changed 
conditions  of  the  times. 

We  shall  see  in  the  following  pages  how  the  nation- 
al prosperity  of  the  past  came  as  the  rich  reward  of 
developing  the  material  resources  of  the  continent, 
and  how  the  inspiration  for  three  remarkable  eras  of 
colonization — along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  through 
the  interior  from  Lakes  to  Gulf,  and  in  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi — sprang  not  from  lust  of  power  or  of 
trade,  but  from  home -building  instincts  peculiar  to 
our  race  and  people.  We  shall  then  observe  what 
vast  resources  yet  remain  to  be  used,  and  how  the 
physical  conditions  of  the  vacant  half-continent  in  the 
West  mark  its  future  civilization  as  inevitably  differ- 
ent, in  important  respects,  from  that  of  the  East. 

xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

In  our  study  of  typical  communities  which  have 
grown  up  among  western  plains  and  mountains  dur- 
ing the  past  half -century,  we  shall  see  how  the  pi- 
oneers unconsciously  shaped  their  institutions  to  suit 
an  environment  hitherto  unknown  to  men  of  English 
speech,  and  how  these  institutions,  with  the  tenden- 
cies they  set  in  motion,  fortunately  conform  to  new 
economic  conditions  in  which  machinery  and  large 
capital  play  so  important  a  part. 

In  our  review  of  the  States  and  Territories  which 
compose  Undeveloped  America,  we  shall  behold  their 
material  achievement  and  the  state  of  their  civiliza- 
tion at  the  close  of  the  present  century,  and  the  wide 
opportunities  which  wait  upon  the  future. 

We  shall  then  seek  to  find  the  relation  between  the 
crowded  population  and  superabundant  capital  which 
have  accumulated  in  the  old  States,  and  the  sur- 
plus resources  of  lands,  forests,  minerals,  and  water- 
power  lying  unused  in  the  West.  We  shall  consider 
how  surplus  men  and  money  may  be  brought  to  sur- 
plus resources,  and  applied,  under  sound  business  prin- 
ciples, to  the  making  of  homes,  industries,  and  insti- 
tutions in  consonance  with  the  traditions  of  our  race 
and  the  genius  of  our  people. 

Whatever  may  be  the  nation's  ultimate  policy  in 
the  Pacific — whether  to  rule  or  to  emancipate — the 
new  impulse  now  clearly  apparent  in  the  intellectual 
and  industrial  life  of  that  part  of  the  world  will  ma- 
terially assist  the  settlement  of  the  Far  West,  and 
indefinitely  widen  the  market  for  its  products.  The 

XV 


INTRODUCTION 

development  of  all  the  lands  around  the  borders  of 
the  Pacific,  the  rise  of  Alaska  and  the  North,  the 
opening  of  Kussia's  new  highway  from  Europe  across 
Siberia  to  Asiatic  shores,  the  building  of  the  Isthmian 
Canal,  with  the  cheap  and  ready  access  it  will  give  to 
both  the  American  and  European  coasts  of  the  Atlan- 
tic— these  great  events  all  prophesy  the  rapid  settle- 
ment of  western  America  during  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. It  lies  there  now  a  clean,  blank  page,  awaiting 
the  makers  of  history  —  the  goodly  heritage  of  our 
people. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  ARID  AMERICA 


©act  fffrst 
COLONIAL  EXPANSION  AT  HOME 

"  In  1850  she  [the  United  States]  passed  Austria.  In  1860  it  was 
her  motherland  to  whom  she  held  out  her  hand  lovingly  as  she 
swept  by.  In  1870  she  overtook  and  passed  France.  In  1880  she 
had  outstripped  the  German  Empire  ;  aud  now,  in  1890,  she  is  left 
without  a  competitor  to  contend  with  except  giant  Russia.  All  the 
others  she  has  left  behind.  Another  decade,  and  the  sound  of  the 
rushing  Republic  close  behind  will  astonish  even  Russia,  with  its 
eighty-six  millions  in  Europe.  Yet  another  decade,  and  it,  too, 
like  all  the  rest,  will  fall  behind  to  watch  for  a  time  the  new  nation 
in  advance,  until  it  forges  so  far  forward  as  to  pass  beyond  her  ken, 
when  five  hundred  millions,  every  one  an  American,  and  all  boast- 
ing a  common  citizenship,  will  dominate  the  world — for  the  world's 
good." — ANDREW  CAKNEGIE,  Triumphant  Democracy. 


CHAPTER  I 

GREATNESS  BY  CONTINENTAL  CONQUEST 

THE  economic  greatness  of  the  United  States  is  the 
fruit  of  a  policy  of  peaceful  conquest  over  the  resources 
of  a  virgin  continent.  "Without  this  great  item  of  raw 
material,  the  finished  product  which  the  world  acknowl- 
edges in  the  industrial  America  of  to-day  would  have 
been  impossible. 

The  true  career  of  the  American  people  as  a  race  of 
empire-builders  dates  not  from  the  founding  of  James- 
town, New  Amsterdam,  and  Plymouth,  but  from  the 
surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown  and  the  subsequent 
inauguration  of  George  Washington  as  the  first  President 
of  the  United  States.  The  early  settlers  were  merely 
European  sentinels  standing  guard  over  a  treasure  of 
continental  magnitude  which  they  neither  compre- 
hended nor  appreciated.  The  tobacco-raisers  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  fur-traders  of  New  York,  and  the  religious 
enthusiasts  of  New  England  had  no  conception  of  a 
national  destiny  or  mission.  They  looked  backward  to 
the  civilization  whence  they  had  come,  rather  than  for- 
ward to  the  conquest  and  subjugation  of  the  mightier 
empire  on  whose  eastern  shores  they  had  set  their  reluc- 
tant feet. 

Only  at  the  close  of  the  successful  war  for  indepen- 

3 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

dence  did  the  world  begin  to  realize  that  the  American 
was  to  be  the  master  of  the  new  continent  for  all  time, 
and  that  his  rule  must  move  westward  as  naturally  and 
inevitably  as  the  sun  in  its  course.  Only  when  the  new 
government,  hewn  out  with  the  sword  and  cemented 
with  the  blood  of  its  citizens,  had  been  finally  and  firmly 
established,  did  the  heterogeneous  elements  in  the 
sparsely  settled  original  States  crystallize  into  a  national 
spirit  and  a  national  character.  From  that  hour  the 
material  development  of  the  New  World  began  in  earnest. 
The  people  labored  as  with  the  vim  and  courage  of  him 
who  works  for  himself.  Men  began  to  dream  of  an 
America  which  should  be  richer  and  more  populous  and 
powerful  than  even  Europe. 

The  war  was  over — the  war  was  begun  !  England  had 
been  shaken  off  by  force  of  arms,  and  the  other  Euro- 
pean ties  would  be  loosed  by  the  arts  of  diplomacy;  but 
it  remained  to  wage  war  on  the  forest,  the  plain,  the 
desert,  and  the  mountain,  and  to  create  a  better  civil- 
ization than  the  world  had  seen.  What  millions  of  men 
and  billions  of  dollars  were  employed  and  rewarded  in 
the  process — what  workshops,  and  railroads,  and  farming 
districts  were  created  in  the  wilderness — what  cities, 
with  swarming  thousands  of  inhabitants,  with  homes 
and  colleges  and  hospitals,  were  erected  in  the  midst  of 
the  primeval  silence — what  States  were  carved  from  the 
woods  and  prairies — what  unexpected  commerce,  borne 
in  undreamed-of  steamships,  was  sent  to  whiten  the  un- 
explored inland  seas ! 

It  is  in  the  answer  to  these  questions  rather  than  in 
the  poet's  paean  to  democracy  that  the  true  explanation 
of  the  economic  progress  of  the  nation  will  be  found. 

4 


CONTINENTAL    CONQUEST 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  fact  that  the  United 
States  was  heralded  throughout  the  world  as  a  "free 
country"  attracted  millions  of  immigrants,  nor  that 
popular  government  and  complete  immunity  from  the 
demands  of  royal  tribute  left  enterprise  unhampered  to 
a  degree  hitherto  unknown.  But  a  vast  commerce  can 
no  more  find  sustenance  solely  in  the  written  constitu- 
tion of  a  country  than  a  starving  prospector  in  the 
mountains  can  satisfy  his  appetite  with  scenery. 

It  seems  worth  while  to  lay  strong  emphasis  upon  this 
point,  because  the  somewhat  general  acceptance  of  the 
notion  that  America  is  the  product  of  its  institutions, 
rather  than  that  its  institutions  are  the  product  of 
America,  has  obscured  the  causes  of  past  prosperity  and 
belittled  the  importance  of  our  undeveloped  resources. 
Not  until  this  fact  is  understood  and  acknowledged 
is  it  possible  to  comprehend,  even  vaguely,  the  incal- 
culable importance  of  the  undeveloped  regions  in  the 
western  half  of  the  United  States. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  the  United  States  con- 
sisted of  a  fringe  of  settlements  mostly  confined  to  the 
Atlantic  coast  and  the  banks  of  important  rivers  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghanies.  Nominally,  the  nation- 
al domain  extended  westward  to  the  Mississippi  river, 
but  practically  there  was  no  development  beyond  the 
thirteen  original  States.  Even  there  the  natural  resour- 
ces of  the  country  had  scarcely  been  touched.  Boston 
had  a  population  of  about  eighteen  thousand,  New  York 
of  about  thirty  thousand,  Philadelphia  of  about  thirty- 
five  thousand,  Baltimore  of  about  fifteen  thousand. 
Richmond,  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  though  of  some 
importance  politically,  were  mere  straggling  hamlets. 

5 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and  New  Orleans  were  French  out- 
posts in  the  wilderness.  Buffalo,  Cincinnati,  Cleveland, 
and  Chicago;  Omaha,  Kansas  City,  Denver,  Salt  Lake, 
and  San  Francisco — these  and  scores  of  other  cities  now 
populous  and  powerful  —  were  hidden  in  the  womb  of 
time.  Of  the  country  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the 
Mississippi  far  less  was  known  than  the  world  now  knows 
of  Africa.  The  vast  domain  lying  between  the  Father 
of  Waters  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  neither  as  well  ex- 
plored nor  as  perfectly  comprehended  as  the  Arctic 
region  is  to-day. 

When  the  men  of  the  new  Republic  turned  their  backs 
on  the  Old  World,  in  the  double  sense  of  politics  and  in- 
dustry, and  faced  the  continental  opportunity  which 
awaited  them,  they  entered  upon  the  fiercest  war  of  con- 
quest in  all  history.  And  the  spoils  of  that  war  were  to 
be  in  proportion  to  the  magnificence  of  the  task. 

The  first  effort  at  the  subjugation  of  the  wilderness 
was  directed  to  the  fields  and  the  streams.  The  forest 
clearings  were  extended  that  agriculture  might  find  room 
for  expansion.  The  trees  felled  in  the  process  were  float- 
ed in  the  rivers  to  saw-mills  driven  by  the  current.  The 
logs,  transformed  to  lumber,  supplied  the  material  for 
millions  of  comfortable  homes.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
new  farms  fed  the  growing  population  of  the  towns, 
while  a  myriad  of  workshops,  improved  by  inventions  of 
which  a  robust  necessity  was  the  prolific  mother,  con- 
sumed and  manufactured  the  textile  materials  from  field 
and  pasture. 

The  step  from  the  crude  employments  of  the  frontier 
to  the  manifold  occupations  of  a  modern  industrial  life 
was  easy  and  natural.  Fostered  by  a  generous  policy  of 

6 


CONTINENTAL    CONQUEST 

protection,  and  blessed  by  long  years  of  peace,  the  work 
of  development  went  on  from  generation  to  generation. 
In  New  England  the  raw  material  011  which  the  workmen 
labored  in  fashioning  a  civilization  was  poorer  than  else- 
where. And  yet  it  was  on  that  sterile  soil,  in  the  midst 
of  those  rocks  and  hills,  that  industrial  pre-eminence  was 
first  to  be  achieved.  A  citizen  of  Massachusetts  once 
made  the  just  boast  that  "not  one  drop  of  water  flows 
from  our  hills  to  the  sea  until  its  power  has  been  three 
times  multiplied  by  the  mill  wheels."  Every  stream  was 
lined  with  factories,  nearly  every  town  had  its  peculiar 
industries  and  its  growing  crowds  of  skilled  laborers, 
supporting  the  stores  and  shops  with  their  trade,  and 
filling  the  schools  with  their  children. 

Not  only  in  New  England,  which  owed  its  serious  en- 
ergy to  the  example  and  character  of  its  founders,  and 
its  fierce  industrial  enthusiasm  to  a  system  of  free  labor, 
but  equally  in  New  York,  in  New  Jersey,  in  Delaware, 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  southward  to  the  Floridian  penin- 
sula, the  army  of  labor  inarched  on  with  irresistible  ad- 
vance. It  scaled  the  crests  of  the  Alleghanies  and  opened 
yet  greater  valleys  to  the  energy  of  men.  It  tunnelled 
into  the  earth  and  brought  up  the  hidden  stores  of  coal 
and  iron  ore.  It  tapped  the  subterranean  reservoirs  of 
natural  gas  and  oil. 

With  the  rapid  growth  of  a  many-sided  economic  life 
the  need  of  improved  facilities  for  internal  transportation 
arose  and  grew  yearly  more  urgent.  The  natural  water- 
courses, navigated  by  rafts  and  sailing  craft,  did  not  long 
suffice.  The  army  of  labor  was  set  at  work  in  building 
great  highways  and  digging  canals.  Then  came  the 
steamboat,  and,  finally,  the  railroad  with  its  iron  horse. 

7 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Thus  it  was  that  the  work  of  taming  the  wilderness 
went  on  with  increasing  fervor.  Thus  it  was  that  thirty- 
two  new  States  were  added  to  the  original  thirteen. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  national  population  was  increased 
fourteen-fold,  and  that  cities  rivalling  the  greatest  urban 
centres  in  the  Old  World,  in  size  and  wealth  and  power, 
were  developed  on  the  site  of  the  colonial  villages  of  the 
early  days.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Republic  was  able  to 
welcome,  and  to  absorb  into  its  apparently  insatiable  in- 
dustrial system,  the  millions  of  immigrants  who  flocked 
to  its  shores. 

During  these  days  of  rapid  material  expansion  over 
new  areas,  Uncle  Sam  was  the  proprietor  of  the  most  gigan- 
tic employment  bureau  on  earth.  He  had  enough  work 
for  his  own  prodigious  family  of  sons,  and  for  the  over- 
flow of  all  the  families  across  the  sea.  He  offered  the 
highest  wages  in  the  world-wide  market.  He  distribu- 
ted his  abounding  prosperity  through  all  channels  of 
trade,  all  classes  of  industry,  all  grades  of  society.  He 
made  men  and  communities  rich  first  by  employing 
their  energies  in  the  conversion  of  the  wilderness  into  a 
civilization,  and  paying  them  roundly  for  the  work  ; 
then  by  the  rise  in  values,  or  "  unearned  increment," 
which  comes  with  population  and  development ;  finally, 
by  the  premium,  or  interest,  upon  capital  thus  acquired. 
All  this  was  the  logical  fruit  of  a  policy  of  continental 
conquest  bravely  undertaken,  magnificently  achieved. 

Behold  the  story  of  national  prosperity  in  the  form  of 
a  few  clear-cut  figures,  divested  of  all  rhetorical  cloth- 
ing :  In  a  little  more  than  one  hundred  years  the  area  of 
farms  increased  from  sixty-five  thousand  square  miles  to 
over  one  million  square  miles.  The  number  of  persons 

8 


CONTINENTAL    CONQUEST 

engaged  in  the  agricultural  industry  in  1890  was  ten 
million  seven  hundred  thousand — more  than  two  and  a 
half  times  the  entire  population  in  1790.  In  acres  the 
total  amount  of  land  classed  as  farms  by  the  last  census 
was  nearly  six  hundred  million,  of  which  nearly  four 
hundred  million  was  under  actual  cultivation,  the  rest 
being  woodlands.  The  number  of  individual  farms  was 
four  million  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  The  annual 
product  was  worth  four  billion  dollars.  "  In  ten  years," 
says  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  in  his  inspiring  book,  Tri- 
umphant Democracy ,  "a  territory  larger  than  Britain,  and 
almost  equal  in  extent  to  the  entire  area  of  France  and 
Germany,  was  added  to  the  farm  area  of  America." 

Marvellous  as  this  statement  is,  it  exhibits  but  one 
item  in  the  record  of  continental  conquest  which  con- 
ferred such  phenomenal  prosperity  upon  the  American 
people  in  the  past.  Agriculture  is  the  basis  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  upon  the  foundation  so  quickly  and  thorough- 
ly laid,  the  new  nation  hastened  to  erect  the  superstruct- 
ure of  a  complex  industrial  life.  The  existence  of  an 
enormous  population  on  the  farms  furnished  a  great  field 
for  manufactures.  This  industry  now  employs  between 
four  and  five  million  workmen,  who  annually  receive  and 
expend  nearly  two  billion  dollars  in  wages,  and  create  an 
annual  product  worth  nearly  nine  billion  dollars. 

Agriculture  and  manufactures — both  finished  products 
wrought  by  millions  of  workmen  from  the  raw  materials 
of  the  new  continent — combined  in  demanding  the  most 
extensive  arrangements  for  internal  transportation  ever 
provided  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  total  railroad 
mileage  at  the  last  census  was  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  which  is  more  than 

0 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

that  of  all  European  countries  combined.  Of  this  vast 
mileage  almost  one-half  was  built  between  1880  and 
1890.  When  it  is  remembered  that  each  of  these  miles 
stands  for  about  fifty  thousand  dollars  expenditure — the 
cost  of  construction  and  equipment — and  that  the  work 
employed  an  army  of  laborers  and  skilled  artisans,  who 
in  turn  consumed  great  quantities  of  agricultural  and 
manufactured  products,  it  is  not  difficult  to  realize  that 
the  railroad  development  contributed  largely  to  the  na- 
tional prosperity  in  the  past.  It  was,  of  course,  the  di- 
rect result  of  the  great  process  of  material  conquest 
which  was  going  on. 

To  the  same  cause  was  due  the  employment  of 
nearly  three  million  people  in  trade  and  transportation  ; 
of  nearly  five  million  in  professional  services,  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  in  mining.  The  grand  result  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  the  national  population  grew  from 
less  than  four  millions  in  1790  to  more  than  sixty-two 
millions  in  1890,  while  the  total  wealth  mounted  to  the 
incomprehensible  sum  of  sixty-five  billion  dollars. 

Such  are  the  stupendous  results  of  the  labors  of  a 
great  people  applied  to  the  resources  of  a  virgin  con- 
tinent. Other  people  have  possessed  energy  and  genius, 
and  two  of  the  European  nations  have  enjoyed  the  bless- 
ings of  self-government.  If  republican  institutions 
would  alone  guarantee  such  results  in  the  future,  it  is 
hardly  to  be  imagined  that  the  sternest  monarchy  could 
withstand  the  demand  for  their  adoption.  But  the 
transcendent  factor  in  the  result  was  the  continental 
expanse  of  marvellous  resources  awaiting  the  labor  and 
genius  of  man. 

Can  there  be  any  question  that  the  abounding  pros- 

10 


CONTINENTAL    CONQUEST 

perity  of  the  American  people  during  the  first  century 
of  their  national  life  was  due  to  this  luminous  fact  ? 
Can  there  be  any  reasonable  doubt  that  if  the  policy  of 
material  conquest  over  new  areas  can  find  another  field 
on  which  to  operate,  and  that  if  it  be  entered  upon  with 
the  old  vigor  and  faith,  it  will  confer  another  century  of 
prosperity  upon  the  nation  so  fortunately  endowed  ? 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  HOME-BUILDING  INSTINCT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

SPEAKING  in  broad  terms,  there  have  been  three  great 
eras  of  colonization  in  the  United  States.  All  of  these 
eras  have  been  well  defined,  intelligible,  and  eventful. 
They  peopled  successively  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  trans- 
Alleghany  region  from  Lakes  to  Gulf,  and  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi.  Taken  together,  they  made  virtually 
complete  the  conquest  of  Eastern  America,  and  in  Eastern 
America  over  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  national  population 
dwells  to-day. 

A  study  of  these  historic  movements  reveals  a  striking 
fact.  It  is  a  fact  which  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the 
American  character,  explaining  much  that  has  occurred 
in  the  past  and  furnishing  secure  ground  upon  which 
to  base  predictions  of  much  that  is  to  happen  in  the 
future.  The  American  colonist,  from  Plymouth  in 
Massachusetts  to  Plymouth  in  Idaho,  has  fixed  his  eyes 
on  one  star,  which  has  shone  out  serene  and  steady 
through  the  clouds  of  religious  persecution,  of  war,  and 
of  economic  strife.  That  star  stood  for  home.  To  build 
a  home  for  himself  and  his  children,  to  live  there  at 
peace  with  his  neighbors  and  the  world,  to  make  better 
institutions  for  average  humanity — this,  when  the  sub- 
ject is  viewed  as  a  whole,  is  seen  to  have  been  the  con- 


THE    HOME-BUILDING    INSTINCT 

sistent  aim  of  American  colonization  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

There  are  a  few  exceptions  to  be  noted,  but  they  are 
not  of  sufficient  importance  to  affect  the  general  result. 
Such  exceptions  are  the  settlement  of  California,  and  of 
certain  localities  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  during  periods 
of  excitement  following  the  discovery  of  gold.     Another 
instance  was  the  settlement  of  Kansas  as  a  means  of 
preserving  the  equilibrium  between  the  free  and  the  slave 
States.     But  these  are  isolated  instances,  of  far  more 
moment  in  an  historical  than  in  a  numerical  sense.    The 
settlers  of  the  United  States  have  been  moved  by  very 
different  instincts  and  motives  than  those  which  im- 
pelled the  Romans,  the  Normans,  and  Danes  to  settle  at 
different  periods  in  Britain.     The  great  movements  of 
population  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  armed  conquests 
for  spoils,  and  power,  and  martial  glory.    Those,  indeed, 
were  the  ruling  motives  among  Europeans  and  Asiatics 
until  comparatively  recent  times.     When  these  motives 
ceased  to  operate,  they  were  succeeded  by  another  which 
was  equally  sordid,  even  if  more  humane.    This  was  the 
lust  for  trade  or  for  sudden  riches.     This  it  was  which 
impelled  the  settlement  of  Australasia  by  the  English, 
of  the  Spice  Islands  by  the  Dutch,  of  South  America  by 
the  Portuguese,  of  Cuba  by  the  Spanish,  of  Africa  by  all 
of  these  and  by  the  French  and  Germans  as  well.     Thus 
the  hosts  which  swarmed  out  of  Europe  to  make  new 
settlements  all  over  the  earth  were  principally  marshalled 
under  the  flag  of  avarice.     It  was  far  different  with  the 
men  who,  at  various  periods  during  the  last  three  hundred 
years,  conquered  the  soil  of  the  United  States  and  ex- 
tended the  frontiers  of  its  civilization. 

13 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

The  settlement  of  the  New  World  was  largely  inaugu- 
rated by  those  who  fled  from  religious  persecution.  But 
it  cannot  be  said  on  that  account  that  their  ruling  mo- 
tive was  not  the  desire  to  enjoy  the  security  of  a  home. 
Religious  sentiment  lies  very  close  to  the  hearth-stone. 
Upon  its  human  side,  at  least,  it  has  'nothing  in  common 
with  politics.  Still  less  is  it  related  to  the  struggle  for 
gain.  It  was  because  they  could  not  live  at  peace  in 
Europe,  because  they  could  not  be  certain  of  life  or 
tenancy  in  any  one  place,  and  therefore  could  not  ac- 
cumulate a  competence  for  their  children,  that  the  relig- 
ious enthusiasts  fled  over  the  sea.  The  Puritan  in  Mass- 
achusetts, the  Baptist  in  Rhode  Island,  the  Quaker  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  Catholic  in  Maryland,  looked  less 
passionately  upon  their  spires  and  crosses  than  upon  the 
babies  in  their  cradles,  the  vegetables  in  their  gardens, 
and  the  smoke  which  curled  from  their  chimneys. 

It  is  true  that  there  were  many  fanatics  in  the  sev- 
enteenth and  previous  centuries  to  whom  religion  was 
dearer  (than  home ;  but  it  was  not  the  axes  of  these 
fanatics  that  felled  the  American  forests.  Their  devoted 
spirits  were  freed  at  the  stake,  or  at  the  block,  or  their 
poor  bodies  festered  in  foul  prisons.  It  was  the  element 
whose  love  of  home  and  kindred  was  too  powerful  to 
permit  them  to  suffer  martyrdom,  even  though  their 
convictions  forbade  them  to  eschew  their  religious  prac- 
tices, who  inaugurated  the  first  era  of  colonization  on 
these  shores.  Theirs  are  the  first  footprints  in  our  his- 
tory, and  they  lead  straight  to  the  home  and  the  fire- 
side. 

The  second  real  era  of  colonization  came  with  the 
end  of  the  Revolution.  Previous  to  that  event  the 

14 


TUE    HOME-BUILDING    INSTINCT 

traus-Alleghany  country  was  but  vaguely  known  as  a 
whole.  Daniel  Boone  had,  indeed,  built  his  cabin  in  the 
wilds  of  Kentucky,  and  adventurous  spirits  had  begun 
to  follow  him  from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  James 
Eobertson  and  John  Sevier,  leading  the  hardy  back- 
woodsmen of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  faith,  had  begun 
the  making  of  Tennessee.  The  French  Creoles  had 
lived  for  three  generations  in  the  slumberous  repose  of 
widely  scattered  villages  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  had 
gathered  in  some  numbers  at  New  Orleans.  But  the 
hour  for  the  real  movement  of  population  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  mountains  had  not  struck.  When  it  did 
strike,  it  found  the  home-building  instinct  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  instantly  and  passionately  responsive  to  its 
summons.  It  was  the  returning  veterans  from  the  War 
of  Independence  who  lent  the  first  great  impulse  to  the 
new  emigration.  Hardened  by  years  of  out-door  life, 
thoroughly  weaned  from  the  atmosphere  of  the  town  and 
the  shop,  finding  their  places  on  the  farms  largely  filled 
by  boys  who,  during  their  absence,  had  grown  to  self- 
reliance,  if  not  to  manhood,  these  war-worn  veterans 
were  not  unwilling  to  transfer  their  battle-ground  from 
the  sea-coast  to  the  wilderness,  and  to  fight  for  homes 
as  ardently  as  they  had  struggled  for  political  indepen- 
dence. 

During  the  next  thirty  years  the  population  of  Ken- 
tucky leaped  from  about  seventy  thousand  to  over  half  a 
million,  and  that  of  Tennessee  from  thirty  thousand  to 
over  four  hundred  thousand.  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois, which  had  no  place  in  the  census  of  1790,  were 
credited,  respectively,  with  nearly  six  hundred  thousand, 
one  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand,  and  fifty-five 

15 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

thousand,  in  1820.  The  movement  went  on  without 
pause  until  the  outbreak  of  the  great  rebellion.  It  was 
even  more  plainly  marked  with  the  home-seeking  char- 
acter than  the  earlier  settlement  of  the  seaboard  States. 
We  need  not  in  this  instance  seek  the  home-loving  in- 
stinct under  the  religious  motive.  The  circumstances 
and  the  methods  of  the  new  army  of  settlers  revealed 
the  supreme  object  of  their  emigration. 

The  lands  along  the  coast  and  in  the  rich  valleys  of 
tidal  rivers  had  been  well  occupied  by  a  people  who  en- 
joyed substantial  prosperity,  not  only  as  the  reward  of 
their  industry,  but  also  as  the  result  of  their  priodty 
of  settlement.  The  country  had  grown.  It  was  plainly 
upon  the  verge  of  a  larger  and  more  rapid  expansion. 
These  circumstances  enhanced  the  value  of  property 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  many  family  fortunes,  espe- 
cially where  the  colonial  hamlets  had  grown  to  be  towns, 
and  promised  to  become  populous  cities.  The  early- 
comers  and  their  descendants  were  being  steadily  en- 
riched by  the  unearned  increment.  Those  who  were 
thus  established  had  no  occasion  to  move,  but  their  less 
fortunate  neighbors  longed  for  homes  of  their  own,  and 
were  ready  to  take  quick  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
which  the  war  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787  had  opened 
for  them  in  the  West.  These  people  were  almost  uni- 
versally poor  in  a  worldly  sense,  but  rich  in  courage  and 
intelligence  and  full  of  the  spirit  of  empire-builders. 
They  were  no  more  a  class  of  greedy  speculators  than 
were  the  pioneers  of  New  England.  They  emigrated 
in  order  that  they  might  improve  their  condition.  They 
were  home-seekers  pure  and  simple.  Placed  completely 
beyond  the  influence  of  Europe,  and  acting  under  a  new 

16 


THE    HOME-BUILDING    INSTINCT 

spirit  of  nationality,  the  people  concerned  in  our  second 
era  of  colonization  developed  a  rugged  Americanism  be- 
fore unknown.  This  spirit  was  typified  in  the  character 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  one  of  its  products. 

The  third  era  of  colonization  followed  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  as  the  second  had  followed  the  War  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  largely  for  the  same  reason.  The  cessation 
of  hostilities  and  the  disbandment  of  the  armies  turned 
back  into  the  paths  of  peace  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
veterans.  They  were  filled  with  an  over-mastering  desire 
for  homes.  They  longed  for  a  chance  to  work  for  them- 
selves, as  their  fathers  and  forefathers  had  done.  Uncle 
Sam  was  still  proprietor  of  a  vast  estate  of  virgin  and 
fertile  soil.  The  homestead  law  beckoned  to  the  return- 
ing hosts  like  the  finger  of  fate.  The  result  was  the 
phenomenal  settlement  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley 
and  the  creation  of  States  where  the  old  soldier  reigned 
all  but  supreme.  In  a  period  of  twenty  years  after  the 
war  Nebraska  jumped  from  a  population  of  twenty-eight 
thousand  to  nearly  half  a  million ;  Kansas  from  one 
hundred  thousand  to  a  round  million;  Iowa  from  six 
hundred  thousand  to  a  million  and  six  hundred  thousand ; 
Dakota  from  five  thousand  to  one  hundred  and  forty 
thousand,  while  Minnesota  also  added  more  than  half  a 
million  to  her  total. 

The  movement  never  paused  until  it  encountered  an 
obstacle  beyond  the  power  of  the  individual  settler  to 
overcome.  This  obstacle  was  aridity — the  failure  of 
rainfall  to  meet  the  demands  of  agriculture.  The  im- 
petus of  the  movement  carried  its  vanguard  across  the 
danger-line  and  into  the  territory  where  existence  could 
not  be  maintained  without  resource  to  methods  then  lit- 
B  17 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

tie  understood,  and  indeed  not  fully  developed.  Upon 
this  strange  boundary  of  prosperity,  which  nature  had 
marked  with  indelible  lines,  the  hosts  engaged  in  the 
third  colonization  era  trembled  and  hesitated  for  several 
years,  then  fell  back  baffled  and  disappointed. 

The  first  act  in  the  drama  of  American  settlement 
ended  in  the  eastern  foothills  of  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains about  1770 ;  the  second,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Mississippi  river  about  1860 ;  the  third,  midway 
on  the  plains  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  and  Texas 
about  1890.  For  each  of  these  historic  periods  we 
might  find  a  fit  and  speaking  emblem  in  its  character- 
istic means  of  transportation.  The  emblem  of  the  first 
would  be  the  little  Mayflower,  tossing  on  the  billows  of 
the  Atlantic  ;  that  of  the  second,  the  heavily  laden  pack- 
horse,  threading  his  tortuous  way  through  the  tangle  of 
the  untrodden  forest;  that  of  the  third,  the  prairie 
schooner,  steering  for  the  setting  sun  across  the  trackless 
sea  of  the  plains. 

The  wonderful  drama  of  American  colonization  has  re- 
served a  fourth  and  .crowning  act,  for  which  the  scenery 
is  arranged  and  the  actors  ready. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE   BETTER   HALF   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 

THE  ninety-seventh  meridian  divides  the  United  States 
almost  exactly  into  halves.  East  of  that  line  dwell  sixty- 
four  million  people.  Here  are  overgrown  cities  and 
over-crowded  industries.  Here  is  surplus  capital,  as  idle 
and  burdensome  as  the  surplus  population.  West  of  that 
line  dwell  four  or  five  millions — less  than  the  population 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  scarcely  more  than  that  of  Greater 
New  York.  And  yet  the  vast  territory  to  the  West — so 
little  known,  so  lightly  esteemed,  so  sparsely  peopled — - 
is  distinctly  the  better  half  of  the  United  States. 

The  West  and  East  are  different  sections,  not  merely 
in  name  and  geographical  location,  but  in  physical  en- 
dowments and  fundamental  elements  of  economic  life. 
Nature  wrote  upon  them,  in  her  own  indelible  charac- 
ters, the  story  of  their  wide  contrasts  and  the  prophecy 
of  their  varying  civilizations.  To  the  one  were  given  the 
advantages  of  earlier  development,  but  for  the  other  were 
reserved  the  opportunities  of  a  riper  time.  It  was  the 
destiny  of  the  one  to  blossom  and  fruit  in  an  epoch  dis- 
tinguished for  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  with  its  vast 
possibilities  of  evil  and  of  good.  It  was  the  destiny  of 
the  other  to  lie  fallow  until  humanity  should  feel  a 
nobler  impulse ;  then  to  nurse,  in  the  shadow  of  its  ever- 

19 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

lasting  mountains  and  the  warmth  of  its  unfailing  sun- 
shine, new  dreams  of  liberty  and  equality  for  men. 

That  this  is  not  the  popular  conception  of  the  mission 
of  the  Far  West  may  be  frankly  acknowledged.  The 
region  is  little  known  to  the  great  middle  -  classes  in 
American  life.  It  has  been  demonstrated  by  actual  stat- 
istics that  only  three  per  cent,  of  our  people  travel  more 
than  fifty  miles  from  their  homes  in  the  course  of  a  year. 
Those  who  make  extended  pleasure  tours  gravitate  not 
unnaturally  to  Europe,  drawn  by  the  fascination  of 
quaint  foreign  scenes  and  the  fame  of  historic  places. 
But  the  comparatively  few  whose  business  or  fancy  has 
taken  them  across  the  continent  fail,  as  a  rule,  to  grasp 
the  true  significance  of  the  wide  empire  which  stretches 
from  the  middle  of  the  great  plains  to  the  shores  of  the 
Western  sea. 

It  is  a  common  human  instinct  to  regard  unfamiliar 
conditions  with  distrust.  The  first  settlers  in  Iowa  en- 
gaged in  desperate  rivalry  for  possession  of  the  wooded 
lands,  thinking  that  no  soil  was  fit  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses unless  it  furnished  the  pioneer  an  opportunity  to 
cut  down  trees  and  pull  up  stumps.  "Land  that  won't 
grow  trees  won't  grow  anything/'  was  the  maxim  of  the 
knowing  ones.  Their  fathers  had  cleared  the  forests  on 
the  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies  to  make  way  for  the  plough 
and  the  field,  and  the  new  generation  could  not  conceive 
that  land  which  bore  rich  crops  of  wild  grasses  and  lay 
plastic  and  level  for  the  husbandman  to  begin  his  labors, 
could  have  any  value.  A  great  deal  of  hard  work  was 
wasted  before  it  was  discovered  that  nature  had  provided 
new  and  superior  conditions  in  the  land  beyond  the 
Mississippi. 

20 


BETTER  HALF  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

So  it  generally  happens  that  the  casual  Western  trav- 
eller, looking  at  the  country  from  car-windows  in  the  in- 
tervals between  his  daily  paper,  brings  back  more  con- 
tempt than  admiration  for  the  economic  possibilities  of 
the  country.  One  must  live  in  the  Far  West  to  begin 
to  comprehend  it.  Not  only  so,  but  he  must  come  with 
eager  eyes  from  an  older  civilization,  and  he  must  study 
the  beginnings  of  industrial  and  social  institutions 
throughout  the  region  as  a  whole,  to  have  any  adequate 
appreciation  of  the  real  potentialities  of  that  half  of  the 
United  States  which  has  been  reserved  for  the  theatre  of 
twentieth-century  developments.  To  all  other  observers 
the  new  West  is  a  sealed  book. 

The  West  is  divided  from  the  East  by  a  boundary-lino 
which  is  not  imaginary.  It  is  a  plain  mark  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  no  man  made  it.  It  is  the  place  where 
the  region  of  assured  rainfall  ends  and  the  arid  region 
begins.  There  have  formerly  been  some  costly  doubts 
about  the  precise  location  of  this  line,  but  these  have 
been  dispelled  by  experience,  and  the  lesson  learned  in 
hardship  and  impressed  by  disaster  is  learned  for  all 
time.  The  momentous  boundary  -  line  is  that  of  the 
ninety-seventh  meridian,  which  cleaves  in  twain  the 
Dakotas,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  and  Texas.  East 
of  this  line  there  is  a  rainfall  which  is  accepted  as  re- 
liable, though  there  are  alternate  disasters  of  drought 
and  flood,  varying  in  their  effects  from  short  crops  to 
total  failures. 

Even  in  humid  regions  nothing  is  so  uncertain  as  the 
time  and  amount  of  the  rainfall.  In  the  whole  range  of 
modern  industry  nothing  is  so  crude,  uncalculating,  and 
unscientific  as  the  childlike  dependence  on  the  mood  of 

21 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  clouds  for  the  moisture  essential  to  the  production 
of  the  staple  necessities  of  life. 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  vast  region 
west  of  the  ninety-seventh  meridian  is,  then,  its  aridity — 
the  lack  of  rainfall  sufficient  to  insure  the  success  of 
agriculture.  The  new  empire  includes,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  seventeen  States  and  Territories.  It  is  a  region  of 
magnificent  dimensions.  From  north  to  south  it  meas- 
ures as  far  as  from  Montreal  to  Mobile.  From  east  to 
west  the  distance  is  greater  than  from  Boston  to  Omaha. 
Within  these  wide  boundaries  there  are  great  diversities  of 
climate  and  soil,  of  altitude  and  other  physical  conditions. 

The  arid  region  was  the  latest  acquisition  of  national 
territory,  except  Alaska,  until  the  late  war  with  Spain. 
It  was  unknown  and  undisputed  as  late  as  the  Revolu- 
tion. It  was  the  fruit  of  James  Monroe's  negotiations 
with  Napoleon  I.,  resulting  in  the  Louisiana  purchase  ;  of 
the  forcible  conquest  from  Mexico  ;  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  of  the  Gadsden  purchase  in  1853.  Unlike 
the  rich  and  well-watered  lands  in  the  valley  and  around 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  acquisition  of  the  arid 
region  was  not  compelled  by  the  irresistible  pressure  of 
the  frontiersmen.  It  came  as  a  perquisite  with  the  pur- 
chase of  Louisiana,  and  as  a  concession  to  manifest  des- 
tiny. Between  the  day  of  its  acquisition  by  the  United 
States  and  the  dawn  of  its  peculiar  and  enduring  civili- 
zation, the  country  was  destined  to  pass  through  three 
distinct  eras.  The  first  was  that  of  the  hunter  and 
trapper ;  the  second,  that  of  the  cowboy  and  the  rude 
miner ;  the  third,  that  of  the  railroad,  the  land-boomer, 
and  the  speculative  farmer,  with  mining  reduced  to  a 
stable  industry. 

22  -  -  ,  . 


BETTER  HALF  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  first  exploration  of  the  strange  new  land  of  the 
mysterious  West  owed  its  initiative  to  the  public  spirit 
of  President  Jefferson.  He  had,  indeed,  but  the  vaguest 
conception  of  the  possible  utility  of  the  country,  and 
realized  that  its  development  would  come  long  after  he 
should  have  passed  from  the  stage  of  events.  But  lie 
was  a  patron  of  science,  and  felt,  moreover,  a  patriotic 
curiosity  to  learn  what  sort  of  a  property  the  nation  had 
acquired.  Congress  cheerfully  authorized  the  expedition 
which  Jefferson  proposed.  The  result  was  the  journey 
of  the  famous  explorers  Lewis  and  Clark,  begun  in 
May,  1804.  Starting  from  St.  Louis,  they  ascended  the 
Missouri  river  to  its  sources,  crossed  the  Kocky  Moun- 
tains in  Montana,  and  followed  the  Columbia  river  to  its 
outlet  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  When  they  returned  and 
presented  their  report,  the  public  obtained  its  first  glim- 
mering of  knowledge  concerning  the  geology,  climate, 
and  animal  and  human  life  of  the  Far  West.  The  subject 
was  then  one  of  remote  interest  to  the  nation,  which  had 
scarcely  acquired  its  foothold,  through  actual  settlement, 
on  the  northwestern  Territories  between  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Mississippi. 

The  second  notable  explorations  were  those  of  Zebulon 
Pike,  which  developed  a  superficial  knowledge  of  Colo- 
rado and  Mexico.  Then  came  Bonneville,  Fremont,  and 
their  contemporaries  and  successors,  with  adventurous 
settlers  and  hardy  gold-hunters  treading  close  upon  their 
heels,  and  effecting  little  substantial  development  for 
decades.  Francis  Parkman,  fresh  from  college,  roamed 
through  the  country  as  far  as  the  Black  Hills  and  old  Fort 
Laramie  in  1847-8,  and  left  a  lively  account  of  the  savage 
wilderness  in  The  Oregon  Trail. 

23 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Thus  gradually,  and  attended  by  many  misrepresenta- 
tions and  strange  misconceptions,  which  inevitably  scat- 
tered wide  the  seeds  of  prejudice,  the  arid  region  emerged 
from  absolute  obscurity  and  stood  partially  revealed  to 
men.  It  was  not,  however,  until  a  few  pioneer  settle- 
ments had  demonstrated  undreamed-of  results,  nor  until 
Major  John  W.  Powell,  by  utterances  as  daring  as  his 
explorations,  had  furnished  a  scientific  basis  for  a  brood 
of  new  hopes,  that  the  real  character  of  Arid  America 
began  to  glow,  like  the  belated  sun  through  a  morning 
fog,  upon  the  popular  imagination. 

The  superiority  of  the  western  half-continent  over  its 
eastern  counterpart  may  not  be  expressed  in  a  word.  It 
is,  rather,  a  matter  for  patient  unfolding  through  a  study 
of  natural  conditions  over  wide  areas,  and  a  scrutiny  of 
the  human  institutions  which  are  the  inevitable  product 
of  this  environment.  Aridity,  in  the  elementary  sense, 
is  purely  an  affair  of  climate.  That  it  is  also  the  germ  of 
new  industrial  and  social  systems,  with  far-reaching 
possibilities  in  the  fields  of  ethics  and  politics,  will  be 
demonstrated  further  on  in  these  pages.  But  the  first 
item  of  importance  in  the  assets  of  the  new  West  is 
climate. 

When  an  inhabitant  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  or  of 
the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes,  or  of  the  lowlands  of  the 
South,  can  no  longer  withstand  the  penetration  of  cold, 
damp  winds,  or  the  malarious  breath  of  swamps,  his 
family  physician  sends  him  to  the  arid  West.  Through- 
out its  length  and  breadth  it  is  one  vast  sanitarium. 
Its  pure,  sweet  air  and  sunny  skies  aro  instinct  with  the 
breath  of  life.  They  put  new  heart  into  the  drooping 
invalid,  prolonging  his  life,  and,  if  he  be  not  too  far 

24 


BETTER  HALF  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

gone  at  the  outset,  restoring  the  old  vigor  to  the  shat- 
tered body.  The  faces  of  the  permanent  sojourners 
within  their  influence  they  paint  with  the  brown  badge 
of  health.  It  is  too  early  as  yet  to  observe  the  full  effect 
of  the  climate  on  the  population  of  the  arid  West,  but 
sufficient  results  are  apparent  to  warrant  the  assertion 
that  these  influences  will  breed  a  great  race. 

The  element  of  aridity  not  only  fosters  health,  but 
moderates  and  makes  more  readily  bearable  the  sum- 
mer's heat  and  winters  cold.  It  is  the  damp  cold  that 
penetrates  to  the  marrow.  It  is  the  humid  heat  that 
prostrates.  To  say  that  a  cold  of  thirty  degrees  below 
zero  at  Helena,  in  Montana,  is  felt  less  than  ten  degrees 
above  zero  in  Chicago  or  New  York  ;  or  to  say  that 
eighty-five  degrees  above  zero  in  the  East  is  more  dan- 
gerous to  the  laborer  than  one  hundred  and  fifteen  de- 
grees at  Indio,  in  the  Colorado  desert,  is  to  put  a  severe 
tax  on  popular  credulity.  Nevertheless,  both  state- 
ments are  literally  true,  as  all  who  have  experienced  the 
conditions  testify. 

Science  corroborates  the  story.  The  United  States 
Weather  Bureau  has  perfected  in  recent  years  an  in- 
strument to  measure  the  difference  between  apparent 
and  sensible  temperature,  which  is  determined  by  hu- 
midity, or  lack  of  it.  The  instrument,  which  consists 
of  a  dry  and  of  a  wet  thermometer,  has  been  in  opera- 
tion at  Yuma,  in  southwestern  Arizona,  since  1888.  Mr. 
A.  Ashenberger,  the  official  observer,  reports  that  the 
hottest  day  in  that  period  was  July  20, 1892.  On  that  day 
the  dry  thermometer  registered  one  hundred  and  four- 
teen degrees  of  apparent  heat,  and  the  wet  thermometer 
sixty-nine  degrees  of  sensible  heat — a  difference  of  forty- 

25 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

three  degrees.  The  scientific  findings  are  borne  out  by 
the  every -day  testimony  of  individuals.  Sun-strokes  in 
the  arid  region  are  practically  unknown.  The  rainless  air 
that  sweeps  over  the  arid  lands  of  western  America  is 
necessarily  dry.  It  neither  breeds  diseases  nor  carries 
their  germs.  It  is  the  very  breath  of  health.  The  lack 
of  moisture,  combined  with  the  configuration,  forbids 
the  presence  of  tornadoes,  and  the  Weather  Bureau  has 
absolutely  no  record  of  such  a  calamity  west  of  the 
ninety-seventh  meridian. 

The  superior  climate  of  the  arid  West  is  due  to  funda- 
mental conditions  which  differ  widely  from  those  of  east- 
ern America.  Viewed  from  the  stand-point  of  the  broader 
climatic  effects,  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States  is 
one  wide  plain.  The  moisture-laden  winds  from  lakes 
and  gulf,  as  from  the  great  ocean  itself,  meet  none  but 
insignificant  barriers.  But  in  the  Far  West  the  moun- 
tains are  the  supreme  factor  in  the  making  of  the  cli- 
mate. The  coast  range  stands  eternal  guard  along  the 
margin  of  the  sea,  while  a  little  farther  inland  the  Sierra 
Nevada  lifts  its  giant  peaks  to  intercept  the  clouds  which 
escape  the  outer  barrier  and  to  condense  their  moisture 
into  snow.  Down  the  centre  of  the  continent,  from 
Canada  to  Mexico,  the  Rocky  Mountains  tower  far  into 
the  sky,  repeating  upon  the  eastern  edge  of  the  arid 
region  the  process  of  condensing  and  storing  the  winter's 
rain  and  holding  it  against  the  summer's  need.  Between 
the  three  great  primary  ranges  scores  of  shorter  ones,  or 
isolated  mountain  groups,  reach  their  long  arms  into  the 
desert.  The  dryness,  purity,  and  lightness  of  the  at- 
mosphere are  due  to  this  mountain  topography,  and  to 
the  high  average  altitude  throughout  the  region.  It  is, 


BETTER   HALF   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES 

then,  in  the  striking  character  of  its  climate,  springing 
from  these  fixed  and  fundamental  conditions,  that  the 
great  West  scores  its  first  superiority  over  the  well-settled 
states  east  of  the  Mississippi  river. 

But  the  nation's  sanitarium  is  also  the  nation's  treas- 
tire-house.  Without  the  store  of  precious  metals  which 
sleeps  in  the  bosom  of  the  western  mountains  the  Ameri- 
can people  would  be  practically  dependent  on  foreign 
lands  for  their  supply  of  gold  and  silver.  From  this 
pitiable  plight  the  nation  was  saved  by  the  wise  states- 
manship and  the  great  good  fortune  which  brought  into 
the  Union  the  States  of  Colorado,  Utah,  and  California, 
of  Idaho,  Montana,  and  Nevada,  of  Washington,  Oregon, 
and  Wyoming,  and  the  Territories  of  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona.  European  nations  testify  their  appreciation 
of  such  resources  by  struggling  for  the  possession  of 
South  Africa,  a  mineral  field  scarcely  worthy  to  be 
mentioned  in  comparison  with  that  of  our  own  great 
West. 

The  western  half-continent  is  rich  not  merely  in  the 
precious  metals,  but  in  all  the  raw  materials  of  economic 
greatness.  Its  supreme  advantage  consists  in  the  ex- 
traordinary diversity  of  its  resources.  In  sketching  the 
peculiarities  of  the  several  Western  States,  further  on  in 
these  pages,  the  facts  will  be  stated  with  more  detail.  In 
directing  attention  to  the  general  superiority  of  these 
States  over  their  sisters  of  the  East,  it  is  sufficient  now  to 
say  that  they  have  more  water-power  than  New  England ; 
more  coal,  iron,  and  oil  than  Pennsylvania ;  larger  and 
better  forests  than  Maine  and  Michigan ;  and  produce 
better  wheat  and  corn  than  Illinois  and  Indiana.  The 
time  is  rapidly  coming  when  they  will  produce  more  and 

27 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

better  sugar  than  Louisiana,  and  will  revolutionize  the 
tanning  industry  by  supplanting  oak  and  hemlock  bark 
with  canaigre.  With  beef  and  mutton,  wool  and  hides, 
they  already  feed  and  clothe  the  East.  They  have  finer 
harbors  than  Boston  and  New  York,  and  a  sea-coast 
which  faces  a  greater  foreign  world. 

There  is  no  Eastern  State  that  compares  with  almost 
any  one  of  these  giant  commonwealths  of  the  compara- 
tively unknown  West  in  anything  save  present  develop- 
ment, which  includes,  of  course,  population,  wealth,  and 
political  influence.  So  emphatic  and  unmistakable  is  the 
superiority  with  which  nature  endowed  the  Far  West 
that  it  may  be  said  in  all  seriousness  that  if  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  had  landed  at  San  Diego  rather  than  at  Ply. 
mouth,  that  half  of  the  country  which  now  contains  over 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  would  be  regarded 
as  comparatively  worthless.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
to  settle  it  to  the  best  advantage.  To  illustrate  :  imagine 
the  excitement  which  would  occur  if  the  people  of  New 
England  should  awaken  some  morning  to  find  themselves 
in  possession  of  the  climate  and  diversified  resources  of 
Colorado,  Washington,  or  California !  Even  the  sane 
brain  which  rules  the  land  of  steady  habits  would  grow 
dizzy  in  the  presence  of  such  vast  possibilities.  And  yet 
Colorado,  Washington,  and  California  represent  but  a 
small  proportion  of  the  country  which  rests  under  the 
wide  arch  of  our  western  sky. 

In  briefly  reviewing  the  salient  points  of  difference  be- 
tween the  old  section  and  the  new,  the  feature  which 
constitutes  at  once  the  most  characteristic  and  the  most 
fundamental  advantage  of  the  West  has  been  left  for 
separate  treatment.  Not  until  this  feature  has  been  con- 

28 


BETTER   HALF   OF  THE   UNITED    STATES 

sidered  is  it  possible  to  appreciate  the  striking  character 
of  the  new  civilization  which  will  rule  the  destinies  of 
the  western  half  of  the  continent,  and,  very  probably, 
project  new  and  potent  influences  into  the  social  and 
political  life  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   BLESSING   OF   ARIDITY 

FORTUNATE  beyond  all  other  parts  of  the  United  States 
in  its  climate  and  in  the  surpassing  wealth  of  its  forests, 
its  quarries  and  its  mines,  western  America  is  yet  more 
favored  in  another  element  of  its  physical  foundation. 
This  is  the  substantial  aridity  which  prevails  throughout 
its  vast  proportions. 

The  anomaly  that  its  foremost  blessing  should  consist 
in  the  fact  which  gave  it  a  wide-spread  reputation  for 
worthlessness  is  interesting,  but  unimportant.  Nature 
frequently  conceals  her  raw  materials  of  greatness,  alike 
in  men  and  in  countries,  until  time  and  opportunity  are 
ripe.  In  the  aridity  of  the  West  we  shall  find  the  true 
key  to  its  future  institutions.  Climate  may  produce  a 
healthy  race,  and  mineral  resources  may  enrich  it,  but 
the  natural  conditions  which  determine  the  character  of 
social  and  industrial  organization,  and  mould  the  habits 
and  customs  of  men,  are  the  potent  influences  which 
shape  civilization.  Hence  we  shall  see  that  in  any  just 
estimate  of  the  relative  worth  of  western  resources  the 
fact  of  aridity  must  be  rated  as  high  above  the  value 
of  forests  and  mines  as  human  progress  is  dearer  than 
money,  and  as  the  fate  of  the  race  is  more  momentous 
than  the  prosperity  of  individuals. 

GO 


THE    BLESSING    OF    ARIDITY 

The  influence  of  the  new  environment  may  readily  be 
illustrated  by  comparing  the  conditions  which  confronted 
the  early  settlers  of  the  New  England  forests  and  the  Illi- 
nois prairie,  on  one  hand,  and,  upon  the  other,  those 
which  the  settler  met  in  the  deserts  around  Salt  Lake. 
Except  for  the  temporary  need  of  defence  against  the 
Indians,  eastern  settlers  were  able  to  locate  their  homes 
without  reference  to  neighbors.  They  cleared  the  forest 
or  turned  the  prairie  sod,  and  were  ready  to  begin. 
They  generally  took  all  the  land  they  could  claim  under 
the  law,  and  held  much  of  it  out  of  use  for  speculation. 
The  greed  for  land  resulted  in  large  farms,  and  this  in- 
volved social  isolation.  The  individual  acted  alone  and 
exclusively  for  his  own  benefit.  The  conditions  not  only 
favored,  but  practically  compelled  it.  Out  of  this  primal 
germ  of  our  eastern  citizenship  grew  the  plant  of  indi- 
vidual enterprise,  which  is  the  conspicuous  product  of 
the  time.  The  fruit  which  it  bore  was  competition,  and 
this  has  latterly  tended  towards  monopoly. 

The  conditions  which  confronted  the  settler  in  the 
deserts  of  Utah  were  widely  different.  There  he  could 
not  build  his  home  and  make  his  living  regardless  of  his 
neighbor.  Without  water  to  irrigate  the  rich  but  arid 
soil  he  could  not  raise  a  spear  of  grass  nor  an  ear  of 
corn.  Water  for  irrigation  could  only  be  obtained  by 
turning  the  course  of  a  stream  and  building  canals  which 
must  sometimes  be  cut  into  the  solid  walls  of  the  canyon 
or  conducted  across  chasms  in  flumes.  All  this  lay  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  individual.  Thus  it  was  found 
that  the  association  and  organization  of  men  were  the 
price  of  life  and  prosperity  in  the  arid  West.  The  alter- 
native was  starvation.  The  plant  which  grew  from  this 

31 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

new  seed  was  associative  enterprise,  and  we  shall  pres- 
ently see  what  flower  it  bore  in  Utah  and  other  States  of 
the  arid  region.  But  it  is  interesting  to  first  observe 
that  we  have  encountered  in  these  underlying  conditions 
of  the  western  half-continent  principles  that  are  as  old 
as  history  and  as  wide  as  humanity. 

The  founders  of  the  wonderful  civilization  of  the 
Netherlands  were  compelled  to  deal  with  conditions 
which  brought  into  action  the  same  forces  as  those 
which  are  working  out  interesting  results  in  the  arid 
region  of  the  United  States.  The  Dutch  combined  and 
organized  their  efforts  in  order  to  keep  the  water  off 
their  lands.,  as  the  Westerners  combine  and  organize  to 
bring  the  water  on.  Writing  of  this  aspect  of  his  sub- 
ject in  that  enlightening  book,  The  Puritan  in  Holland, 
England,  and  America,  Mr.  Douglass  Campbell  says  : 

"  The  constant  struggle  for  existence,  as  in  all  cases 
when  the  rewards  are  great  enough  to  raise  men  above 
biting,  sordid  penury,  strengthens  the  whole  race,  men- 
tally, morally,  and  physically.  Labor  here  lias  never  been 
selfish  and  individual.  To  le  effective,  it  requires  organ- 
ization and  direction.  Men  learn  to  work  in  a  body  and 
under  leaders.  A  single  man  laboring  on  a  dike  would 
accomplish  nothing ;  the  whole  population  must  turn 
out  and  act  together." 

Even  more  interesting  and  significant  is  Mr.  Campbell's 
statement  of  the  far-reaching  influence,  upon  the  whole 
economic  fabric  of  the  nation,  of  the  co-operative  meth- 
ods taught  the  founders  of  Holland  by  the  necessities  of 
their  situation  and  transmitted  to  their  descendants.  He 
says  : 
/  "The  habits  thus  engendered  extend  in  all  directions. 


THE    BLESSING    OF    ARIDITY 

Everything  is  clone  in  corporations"  [co-operations  ?]. 
••Each  trade  has  its  guild,  elects  its  own  officers,  and 
manages  its  own  affairs.  The  people  are  a  vast  civic 
army,  subdivided  into  brigades,  regiments,  and  com- 
panies, all  accustomed  to  discipline,  learning  the  first 
great  lesson  of  life — obedience." 

Professor  E.  W.  Hilgard,  the  distinguished  director  of 
the  agricultural  department  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, has  brought  this  line  of  reasoning  from  physical 
causes  to  industrial  effects  into  direct  application  to  our 
subject.  In  a  notable  contribution  to  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly  he  says  : 

"As  irrigation  means  heavy  investments  of  capital  or 
labor,  hence  the  co-operation  of  many  and  the  construc- 
tion of  permanent  works :  it  necessarily  implies  the  cor- 
relative existence  of  a  stable  social  organization,  with 
protection  for  property  rights,  and  (in  view  of  the 
complexity  of  the  problem  of  proper  and  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  water)  a  rather  advanced  appreciation  of 
the  need  and  advantages  of  co-operative  organization." 

It  was  in  the  course  of  an  effort  to  account  for  the 
singular  preference  of  the  founders  of  the  most  ancient 
civilizations  for  arid  lands,  rather  than  for  the  forested 
areas  which  have  been  the  scenes  of  later  development, 
that  Professor  Hilgard  made  this  expression  of  the 
obvious  effects  of  irrigation  on  industrial  polity.  A 
little  further  on  we  shall  see  other  interesting  results  of 
his  inquiry  in  this  field. 

The  quality  of   aridity  is   thus   the   most  significant 
among  many  striking  contrasts  which  mark  the  western 
half  of  the  United  States — the   field   for  future    settle- 
ment   and    development  —  as    fundamentally    different 
o  33 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

from  the  eastern  half.  Its  relation  to  agriculture  is  im- 
portant and  interesting,  but  its  relation  to  a  future  civil- 
ization in  a  broader  sense  will  be  momentous.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  fateful  crop,  trembling  with  the  hopes  of  hu- 
manity, that  is  beginning  to  sprout  from  the  arid  soil  of 
the  far-western  deserts. 

The  blessing  of  aridity  is  again  conspicuously  illus- 
trated in  its  remarkable  effect  upon  the  soil.  The  land 
which  the  casual  traveller,  speaking  out  of  the  splendid 
depths  of  his  ignorance  and  prejudice,  condemns  as 
"worthless"  and  fit  only  "to  hold  the  earth  together," 
is  in  reality  rich  and  durable  beyond  the  most  favored 
districts  in  the  humid  regions.  It  is  the  marvel  of  every 
eastern  farmer  who  comes  in  contact  with  it.  Professor 
Hilgard  sees  in  this  phenomenal  fertility  the  most  rea- 
sonable explanation  of  the  choice  of  arid  lands  by  the 
people  foremost  in  ancient  civilization. 

It  has  puzzled  the  historian  to  account  for  the  fact 
that  the  glories  of  antiquity  sprang  from  the  heart  of 
the  desert.  The  fact  itself  is,  of  course,  beyond  dispute. 
Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  and  Syria,  with  Palestine,  "the  land 
of  milk  and  honey";  Persia,  Arabia,  and  the  classic  lands 
of  northern  India,  as  well  as  the  countries  of  the  Car- 
thaginians and  the  Moors,  were  arid  regions.  So  also 
were  the  chosen  homes  of  the  Incas  in  South  America, 
and  of  the  Aztecs  and  Toltecs  in  Mexico  and  our  own 
Southwest,  the  fame  of  whose  vanished  civilizations  is 
reflected  in  the  pages  of  Prescott  and  Baldwin.  For 
aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  these  departed  nations 
may  have  been  perfect  types  of  the  co-operative  com- 
monwealth, and  the  knack  of  governing  them  for  the 
equal  benefit  of  all  may  be  the  most  precious  of  the  lost 


THE    BLESSING    OF    ARIDITY 

arts.  Among  the  silent  witnesses  which  have  survived 
the  centuries  to  testify  to  the  engineering  skill  and 
the  perfection  of  social  organization  of  those  who  were 
swept  into  oblivion  by  nameless  calamities,  are  great 
irrigation  canals,  portions  of  which  are  even  yet  so  true 
and  substantial  as  to  serve  the  uses  of  to-day  in  con- 
junction with  modern  works.  There  are  such  instances 
in  Arizona. 

The  accepted  explanation  of  the  choice  of  the  arid 
land  by  the  ancient  races  is  that  they  sought  security 
against  savage  enemies,  both  animal  and  human,  which 
infested  the  forest.  The  theory  is  purely  sentimental 
and  quite  inconsistent  with  the  slight  but  conclusive 
evidences  of  their  superior  intelligence  and  courage 
which  yet  survive.  The  reasonable  explanation  of  the 
mystery  of  ancient  civilization  is  that  the  arid  lands 
were  chosen  because  they  were  infinitely  better  than  the 
humid  lands,  and  because  they  presented  conditions 
much  better  suited  to  the  industrial  polity  of  the  people 
and  the  age. 

In  searching  for  the  clue  of  this  mystery  Professor 
Hilgard  has  developed  facts  which  tend  to  upset  other 
accepted  theories.  It  has  long  been  conceded  that  cer- 
tain arid  districts  are  the  richest  spots  on  the  surface  of 
the  globe.  ' '  The  valley  of  the  Nile/'  for  instance,  is  a 
phrase  which  is  everywhere  taken  as  a  synonym  of  ex- 
traordinary fertility.  The  richness  and  durability  of 
the  Nile  lands,  which  have  supported  for  centuries  an 
average  population  of  little  more  than  one  and  one-half 
persons  to  each  acre  of  cultivated  soil  (a  density  of  set- 
tlement which  would  give  Texas  a  population  of  over 
one  hundred  and  sixty  millions),  has  been  ascribed  to 

35 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  fertilizing  quality  of  the  annual  deposit  of  river  sedi- 
ment. The  partisans  of  irrigation  have  made  much  of 
this  aspect  of  the  matter,  asserting  that  the  artificial 
application  of  water  is  itself  a  means  of  fertilization. 
They  have  asserted  the  claim,  not  only  where  the  source 
of  supply,  as  in  the  cases  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Rio 
Colorado,  is  obviously  heavily  charged  with  silt  held 
in  suspension,  but  with  almost  equal  ardor  in  cases 
where  the  water  flows,  a  stream  of  limpid  crystal,  di- 
rectly from  the  mountain-side,  or  gushes  impetuously 
from  the  earth  in  artesian  outpourings. 

That  the  famous  river  Nile  does,  indeed,  leave  a  thin 
deposit  of  rich  soil  upon  each  subsidence  of  its  annual 
flood  our  California  scientist  does  not,  of  course,  deny. 
He  proves,  however,  that  this  layer  of  new  soil  is  only  of 
the  thickness  of  common  cardboard — one-twenty-fifth  of 
an  inch — and  is  equal  to  only  about  two  good  two-horse 
loads  per  acre.  Three  times  as  much  stable  manure  is 
the  usnal  dressing  for  an  acre.  He  truly  observes  that 
as  the  sediment  is  merely  rich  soil,  thousands  of  farmers 
could  readily  haul  and  spread  such  fertilizer  upon  their 
land,  and  would  doubtless  do  so  if  they  could  thereby 
duplicate  the  phenomenal  fertility  of  the  Nile  country. 
He  clinches  his  argument  by  showing  that  the  neighbor- 
ing province  of  Fayoom,  in  the  Libyan  Desert,  shares 
the  perpetual  fertility  of  the  Nile  district,  though  irri- 
gated only  with  the  clear  waters  of  Lake  Moeris ;  that 
the  regur  lands  of  the  Deccan,  in  south-central  In- 
dia, have  been  phenomenally  productive  for  thousands 
of  years,  and  that  the  loess  region  of  China,  drained 
by  the  headwaters  of  the  Yellow  river,  have  been  the 
granary  of  China  for  ages.  Like  the  famous  Egyptian 

36 


THE    BLESSING    OF    ARIDITY 

provinces,  the  lands  referred  to  in  India  and  China  are 
arid  or  semi-arid,  and,  unlike  the  Nile  Valley,  they  have 
not  been  enriched  by  sedimentry  deposits  or  fertilized 
by  irrigation. 

Hence,  Professor  Hilgard  reaches  the  somewhat  sensa- 
tional conclusion  that  the  extraordinary  fertility  which, 
by  world-wide  acknowledgment,  marks  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  is  a  quality  inherent  in  aridity  itself.  And  he  main- 
tains his  contention  thus : 

"  Soils  are  formed  from  rocks  by  the  physical  and 
chemical  agencies  commonly  comprehended  in  the  term 
weathering,  which  includes  both  their  pulverization  and 
chemical  decomposition  by  atmospheric  action.  Both 
actions,  but  more  especially  the  chemical  one,  continue 
in  the  soil  itself ;  the  last  named  in  an  accelerated  meas- 
ure, so  as  to  give  rise  to  the  farmer's  practice  of  ( fallow- 
ing'— that  is,  leaving  the  land  exposed  to  the  action  of 
the  air  in  a  well-tilled  but  implanted  condition,  with  a 
view  to  increasing  the  succeeding  year's  crop  by  the  ad- 
ditional amount  of  plant-food  rendered  available,  during 
the  fallow,  from  the  soil  itself. 

"  This  weathering  process  is  accompanied  by  the 
formation  of  new  compounds  out  of  the  minerals  origin- 
ally composing  the  rock.  Some  of  these,  such  as  zeolites 
and  clay,  are  insoluble  in  water,  and  therefore  remain  in 
the  soil,  forming  a  reserve  of  plant-food  that  may  be 
drawn  upon  gradually  by  plants  ;  while  another  portion, 
containing  especially  the  compounds  of  the  alkalies — pot- 
ash and  soda — are  easily  soluble  in  water.  Where  the 
rainfall  is  abundant  these  soluble  substances  are  current- 
ly carried  into  the  country  drainage,  and  through  the 
rivers  into  the  ocean.  Among  these  are  potash,  lime, 

37 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

magnesia,  sulphuric  and  a  trifle  of  phosphoric  acids. 
Where,  on  the  contrary,  the  rainfall  is  insufficient  to 
carry  the  soluble  compounds  formed  in  the  weathering 
of  the  soil-mass  into  the  country  drainage,  those  com- 
pounds must  of  necessity  remain  and  accumulate  in  the 
soil." 

All  this  is  perfectly  comprehensible,  even  to  the  lay 
mind.  The  valuable  ingredients  of  the  soil  which  are 
soluble  have  been  washed  out  of  the  land  in  humid  re- 
gions, like  our  eastern  States,  by  the  rains  of  centuries. 
On  the  other  hand,  these  elements  have  been  accumu- 
lating in  the  arid  soil  of  the  West  during  the  same  cen- 
turies. They  lie  there  now  like  an  inexhaustible  bank 
account  on  which  the  plant-life  of  the  future  may  draw 
at  will  without  danger  of  protest.  The  process  which 
created  this  rich  soil  goes  on  repeating  itself — recreating 
the  soil  season  after  season.  The  same  is  true,  of  course, 
in  the  arid  and  semi-arid  regions  of  Egypt,  India,  China, 
and  all  other  localities  that  enjoy  the  inestimable  bless- 
ing of  aridity. 

Professor  Hilgard's  conclusions  are  the  result  of  pa- 
tient investigation.  They  are  based  on  more  than  one 
thousand  analyses  of  the  soils  of  the  arid  and  the  hu- 
mid regions  of  the  United  States — of  the  West  and  the 
East.  These  analyses  demonstrated  the  following  as- 
tounding fact :  That  the  soils  of  the  arid  regions  lying 
west  of  the  one  hundredth  meridian,  when  compared 
with  the  soils  of  the  humid  region  lying  east  of  the 
Mississippi  river,  contain  on  the  average  three  times  as 
much  potash,  six  times  as  much  magnesia,  and  fourteen 
times  as  much  lime.  This  is  the  scientific  explanation 
of  the  superior  productiveness  of  the  arid  regions  of  tho 

38 


THE    BLESSING    OF 

West,  which  every  intelligent  observer  has  noted  and 
marvelled  to  behold. 

The  people  of  the  Blue  Grass  Eegion  of  Kentucky 
and  of  other  favored  localities  have  repeated  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  the  boast  that  "  a  limestone  coun- 
try is  always  a  rich  country."  Professor  Hilgard  has 
demonstrated  that  the  average  arid  soil  is  equal  to  the 
most  phenomenal  soil  of  the  East,  while  the  soil  of  the 
arid  West  as  a  whole  is  beyond  comparison  with  that 
of  the  humid  East  as  a  whole.  He  coins  the  maxim, 
"Arid  countries  are  always  rich  countries  when  irri- 
gated," and  the  phrase  does  scant  justice  to  the  subject. 
It  only  remains  to  add  that  Professor  Hilgard  is  recog- 
nized as  the  foremost  expert  on  soils  in  the  West,  and 
one  of  the  first  men  in  his  profession  in  the  United 
States.  No  one  will  question  the  weight  of  his  views, 
for  they  coincide  alike  with  common-sense  and  with 
world-wide  experience  through  the  centuries,  It  cannot, 
therefore,  be  doubted  that  the  agricultural  foundation 
of  the  Far  West,  as  it  relates  to  the  soil,  is  incompar- 
ably better  than  any  other  part  of  the  continent. 

While  science  has  thus  furnished  a  lucid  explanation 
of  the  universal  fertility  of  arid  lands,  it  would  be  un- 
fair to  draw  the  conclusion  that  the  claims  which  have 
been  made  concerning  the  rare  fertilizing  qualities  of 
certain  western  rivers  are  entirely  unfounded.  Nearly 
all  of  the  rivers  in  the  West  carry  more  or  less  rich  silt, 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  flow  through  treeless  regions, 
where  the  soil  is  swept  into  the  stream  by  winds  and 
sudden  torrents.  Eastern  rivers  are,  as  a  rule,  much 
clearer,  because  they  flow  through  forests  and  cultivated 
fields.  The  waters  of  the  Colorado  river  gather  an 

39 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

enormous  quantity  of  fertilizing  matter  in  their  long 
journey  from  the  mountains  of  Wyoming  to  the  Gulf  of 
California.  There  is  no  guesswork  in  this  instance. 
The  scientific  men  of  the  University  of  Arizona,  fit  Tuc- 
son, have  made  patient  experiments,  extending  over 
many  months  of  time,  to  determine  the  actual  commer- 
cial value  ofthe  fertilizer  contained  in  these  waters  and 
precipitated  on  the  land  in  the  process  of  irrigation. 
Basing  their  computation  upon  the  use  of  thirty-six 
acre-inches  of  this  water,  they  find  that  the  fertilizing 
material  so  applied  would  cost,  if  purchased  in  the  mar- 
ket, the  sum  of  nine  dollars  and  seven  cents  per  acre. 
Where  such  conditions  prevail  cultivation  can  never  im- 
poverish, but  actually  enriches,  the  fortunate  soil.  But 
we  have  yet  to  mention  the  chief  blessing  of  aridity. 
This  is  the  fact  that  it  compels  the  use  of  irrigation. 
And  irrigation  is  a  miracle  ! 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   MIRACLE   OF   IRRIGATION 

THE  beauty  of  Damascus  is  the  theme  of  poets.  Speak- 
ing of  this  ancient  capital  an  anonymous  writer  remarks 
that  "the  cause  of  its  importance  as  a  city  in  all  the  ages 
is  easily  seen  as  you  approach  it  from  the  south.  Miles 
before  you  see  the  mosques  of  the  modern  city  the  foun- 
tains of  a  copious  and  perennial  stream  spring  from  among 
the  rocks  and  brushwood  at  the  base  of  the  Anti-Leba- 
non, creating  a  wide  area  about  them,  rich  with  prolific 
vegetation."  He  continues : 

"These  are  the  ( streams  of  Lebanon/  which  are  poeti- 
cally spoken  of  in  the  Songs  of  Solomon,  and  the  'rivers 
of  Damascus/  which  Naaman,  not  unnaturally,  preferred 
to  all  the  ' waters  of  Israel.'  This  stream,  with  its  many 
branches,  is  the  inestimable  treasure  of  Damascus.  While 
the  desert  is  a  fortification  round  Damascus,  the  river, 
where  the  habitations  of  men  must  always  have  been 
gathered,  as  along  the  Nile,  is  its  life. 

"The  city,  which  is  situated  in  a  wilderness  of  gardens 
of  flowers  and  fruits,  has  rushing  through  its  streets  the 
limpid  and  refreshing  current ;  nearly  every  dwelling  has 
its  fountain,  and  at  night  the  lights  are  seen  flashing  on 
the  waters  that  dash  along  from  their  mountain  home. 
As  you  first  view  the  city  from  one  of  the  overhanging 

41 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ridges  you  are  prepared  to  excuse  the  Mohammedans  for 
calling  it  the  earthly  paradise.  Around  the  marble 
minarets,  the  glittering  domes,  and  the  white  buildings, 
shining  with  ivory  softness,  a  maze  of  bloom  and  fruit- 
age— where  olive  and  pomegranate,  orange  and  apricot, 
plum  and  walnut,  mingle  their  varied  tints  of  green — is 
presented  to  the  sight,  in  striking  contrast  to  the  miles 
of  barren  desert  over  which  you  have  just  ridden/' 

This  is  the  miracle  of  irrigation  in  the  Syrian  desert. 
It  is  no  more  miraculous  in  that  far-eastern  country  than 
in  our  own  West.  Nor  is  Damascus  more  beautiful  than 
Denver,  Salt  Lake  City,  or  than  any  one  of  a  score  of 
modern  towns  in  California.  But  because  Damascus  is 
ancient  and  historic,  and  looks  down  on  mankind  from 
the  biblical  past,  it  possesses  a  degree  of  interest  with 
which  it  is  difficult  to  invest  much  better  and  more  im- 
portant places  of  our  own  country  and  our  own  time.  It 
is  well,  then,  to  remember  that  not  only  the  beauty  of 
Damascus,  but  the  glories  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  itself, 
were  products  of  irrigation.  "  A  river  went  out  of  Eden 
to  water  the  Garden,"  says  the  Bible  story. 

No  consideration  of  the  subject  can  bo  appreciative 
when  it  starts  with  the  narrow  view  that  irrigation  is 
merely  an  adjunct  to  agriculture.  It  is  a  social  and  in- 
dustrial factor,  in  a  much  broader  sense.  It  not  only 
makes  it  possible  for  a  civilization  to  rise  and  flourish  in 
the  midst  of  desolate  wastes ;  it  shapes  and  colors  that 
civilization  after  its  own  peculiar  design.  It  is  not 
merely  the  life-blood  of  the  field,  but  the  source  of  in- 
stitutions. These  wider  and  more  subtle  influences  are 
difficult  to  define  in  abstract  terms,  but  wo  may  trace 
them  clearly  through  the  history  of  various  conimu- 


THE    MIRACLE    OF    IRRIGATION 

nitics  which  have  grown  up  in  conformity  with  these 
conditions. 

The  essence  of  the  industrial  life  which  springs  from 
irrigation  is  its  democracy.  The  first  great  law  which 
irrigation  lays  down  is  this  :  There  shall  be  no  monopoly 
of  land.  This  edict  it  enforces  by  the  remorseless  opera- 
tion of  its  own  economy.  Canals  must  be  built  before 
water  can  be  conducted  upon  the  land.  This  entails  ex- 
pense, either  of  money  or  of  labor.  What  is  expensive 
cannot  be  had  for  naught.  Where  water  is  the  founda- 
tion of  prosperity  it  becomes  a  precious  thing,  to  be 
neither  cheaply  acquired  not  wantonly  wasted.  Like  a 
city's  provisions  in  a  siege,  it  is  a  thing  to  be  carefully 
husbanded,  to  be  fairly  distributed  according  to  men's 
needs,  to  be  wisely  expended  by  those  who  receive  it. 
For  these  reasons  men  cannot  acquire  as  much  irrigated 
land,  even  from  the  public  domain,  as  they  could  acquire 
where  irrigation  was  unnecessary.  It  is  not  only  more 
difficult  to  acquire  in  large  bodies,  but  yet  more  difficult 
to  retain.  A  large  farm  under  irrigation  is  a  misfortune; 
a  great  farm,  a  calamity.  Only  the  small  farm  pays. 
But  this  small  farm  blesses  its  proprietor  with  industrial 
independence  and  crowns  him  with  social  equality.  That 
is  democracy. 

Industrial  independence  is,  in  simplest  terms,  the  guar- 
antee of  subsistence  from  one's  own  labors.  It  is  the 
ability  to  earn  a  living  under  conditions  which  admit  of 
the  smallest  possible  element  of  doubt  with  the  least 
possible  dependence  upon  others.  Irrigation  fully  satis- 
fies this  definition. 

The  canal  is  an  insurance  policy  against  loss  of  crops 
by  drought,  while  aridity  is  a  substantial  guarantee 

43 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

against  injury  by  flood.  Of  all  the  advantages  of  irriga- 
tion, this  is  the  most  obvious.  Scarcely  less  so,  how- 
ever, is  its  compelling  power  in  the  matter  of  produc- 
tion. Probably  there  is  no  spot  of  land  in  the  United 
States  where  the  average  crop  raised  by  dependence  upon 
rainfall  might  not  be  doubled  by  intelligent  irrigation. 
The  rich  soils  of  the  arid  region  produce  from  four  to 
ten  times  as  largely  with  irrigation  as  the  soil  of  the 
humid  region  without  it.  As  the  measure  of  value  is 
not  area,  but  productive  capacity,  twenty  acres  in  the  Far 
West  should  equal  one  hundred  acres  elsewhere.  Such 
is  the  actual  fact. 

A  little  further  on  we  shall  see  that  not  merely  the 
quantity  of  crops,  but  their  quality  as  well,  responds  to 
the  influence  of  irrigation.  We  shall  see  how  this  art 
favors  the  production  of  the  wide  diversity  of  products 
required  for  a  generous  living.  Certainty,  abundance, 
variety — all  this  upon  an  area  so  small  as  to  be  within 
the  control  of  a  single  family  through  its  own  labor — 
are  the  elements  which  compose  industrial  independence 
tinder  irrigation.  The  conditions  which  prevail  where 
irrigation  is  not  necessary — large  farms,  hired  labor,  a 
strong  tendency  to  the  single  crop — are  here  reversed. 
Intensive  cultivation  and  diversified  production  are  in- 
separably related  to  irrigation.  These  constitute  a  sys- 
tem of  industry  the  fruit  of  which  is  a  class  of  small 
landed  proprietors  resting  upon  a  foundation  of  eco- 
nomic independence. 

This  is  the  miracle  of  irrigation  on  its  industrial  side. 

As  a  factor  in  the  social  life  of  the  civilization  it  cre- 
ates, irrigation  is  no  less  influential  and  beneficent. 
Compared  with  the  familiar  conditions  of  country  life 

44 


THE    MIRACLE    OF    IRRIGATION 

which  we  have  known  in  the  East  and  central  West,  the 
change  which  irrigation  brings  amounts  to  a  revolution. 
The  bane  of  rural  life  is  its  loneliness.  Even  food, 
shelter,  and  provision  for  old  age  do  not  furnish  protec- 
tion against  social  discontent  where  the  conditions  deny 
the  advantages  which  flow  from  human  association. 
Better  a  servant  in  the  town  than  a  proprietor  in  the 
country ! — such  has  been  the  verdict  of  recent  genera- 
tions who  have  grown  up  on  the  farm  and  left  it  to  seek 
satisfaction  for  their  social  instincts  in  the  life  of  the 
town.  The  starvation  of  the  soul  is  almost  as  real  as 
the  starvation  of  the  body. 

Irrigation  compels  the  adoption  of  the  small-farm 
unit.  This  is  the  germ  of  new  social  possibilities,  and 
we  shall  see  to  what  extent  they  have  already  been  real- 
ized as  we  proceed.  During  the  first  and  second  eras  of 
colonization  in  this  country  the  favorite  size  for  a  farm 
was  about  four  hundred  acres,  of  which  from  a  fourth 
to  a  half  was  gradually  cleared  and  the  rest  retained  in 
woodland.  The  Mississippi  Valley  was  settled  mostly  in 
quarter-sections,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
each.  The  productive  capacity  of  land  is  so  largely  in- 
creased by  irrigation,  and  the  amount  which  one  family 
can  cultivate  by  its  own  labor  consequently  so  much  re- 
duced, that  the  small-farm  unit  is  a  practical  necessity 
in  the  arid  region. 

Where  settlement  has  been  carried  out  upon  the 
most  enlightened  lines  irrigated  farms  range  from  five 
to  twenty  acres  upon  the  average,  rarely  exceeding  forty 
acres  at  the  maximum.  It  is  perfectly  obvious,  of 
course,  that  a  twenty-acre  unit  means  that  neighbors 
will  be  eight  times  as  numerous  as  in  a  country  settled 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

up  in  quarter-sections — that  where  farms  are  ten  acres 
in  size  neighbors  will  be  multiplied  by  sixteen.  Thus 
in  its  most  elementary  aspect  the  society  of  the  arid  re- 
gion differs  materially  from  that  of  a  country  of  large 
farms.  Eight  or  sixteen  families  upon  a  quarter-section 
are  much  better  than  no  neighbors  at  all,  but  irrigation 
goes  further  than  this  in  revolutionizing  the  social  side 
of  rural  life. 

A  very-small-farm  unit  makes  it  possible  for  those  who 
till  the  soil  to  live  in  the  town.  The  farm  village,  or 
home  centre,  is  a  well-established  feature  of  life  in  Arid 
America,  and  a  feature  which  is  destined  to  enjoy  wido 
and  rapid  extension.  Each  four  or  five  thousand  acres 
of  cultivated  land  will  sustain  a  thrifty  and  beautiful 
hamlet,  where  all  the  people  may  live  close  together 
and  enjoy  most  of  the  social  and  educational  advantages 
within  the  reach  of  the  best  eastern  town.  Their  chil- 
dren will  have  kindergartens  as  well  as  schools,  and  pub- 
lic libraries  and  reading-rooms  as  well  as  churches.  The 
farm  village,  lighted  by  electricity,  furnished  with  domes- 
tic water  through  pipes,  served  with  free  postal  delivery, 
and  supplied  with  its  own  daily  newspapers  at  morning 
and  evening,  has  already  been  realized  in  Arid  America. 
The  great  cities  of  the  western  valleys  will  not  be  cities 
in  the  old  sense,  but  a  long  series  of  beautiful  villages, 
connected  by  lines  of  electnc  motors,  which  will  move 
their  products  and  people  from  place  to  place.  In  this 
scene  of  intensely  cultivated  land,  rich  with  its  bloom 
and  fruitage,  with  its  spires  and  roofs,  and  with  its  car- 
pets of  green  and  gold  stretching  away  to  the  mountains, 
it  will  be  difficult  for  the  beholder  to  say  where  the 
ends  and  the  country  begins. 

40 


THE    MIRACLE    OF    IRRIGATION 

This  is  the  miracle  of  irrigation  upon  its  social  side. 

Irrigation  is  the  foundation  of  truly  scientific  agricult- 
ure. Tilling  the  soil  by  dependence  upon  rainfall  is,  by 
comparison,  like  a  stage-coach  to  the  railroad,  like  the 
tallow  dip  to  the  electric  light.  The  perfect  conditions 
for  scientific  agriculture  would  be  presented  by  a  place 
where  it  never  rained,  but  where  a  system  of  irrigation 
furnished  a  never-failing  water  supply  which  could  be 
adjusted  to  the  varying  needs  of  different  plants.  It  is 
difficult  for  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking 
of  irrigation  as  merely  a  substitute  for  rain  to  grasp  the 
truth  that  precisely  the  contrary  is  the  case.  Kain  is  the 
poor  dependence  of  those  who  cannot  obtain  the  advan- 
tages of  irrigation.  The  western  farmer  who  has  learned 
to  irrigate  thinks  it  would  be  quite  as  illogical  for  him 
to  leave  the  watering  of  his  potato-patch  to  the  caprice 
of  the  clouds  as  for  the  housewife  to  defer  her  wash-day 
until  she  could  catch  rain-water  in  her  tubs. 

The  supreme  advantage  of  irrigation  consists  not  more 
in  the  fact  that  it  assures  moisture  regardless  of  the 
weather  than  in  the  fact  that  it  makes  it  possible  to  ap- 
ply that  moisture  just  when  and  just  where  it  is  needed. 
For  instance,  on  some  cloudless  day  the  strawberry-patch 
looks  thirsty  and  cries  for  water  through  the  unmistak- 
able language  of  its  leaves.  In  the  Atlantic  States  it 
probably  would  not  rain  that  day,  such  is  the  perversity 
of  nature,  but  if  it  did  it  would  rain  alike  on  the  just 
and  unjust — on  the  strawberries,  which  would  be  bene- 
fited by  it,  and  on  the  sugar-beets,  which  crave  only  the 
uninterrupted  sunshine  that  they  may  pack  their  tiny 
cells  with  saccharine  matter.  In  the  arid  region  there  is 
practically  no  rain  during  the  growing  season.  Thus  the 

47 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

scientific  farmer  sends  the  water  from  his  canal  through 
the  little  furrows  which  divide  the  lines  of  strawberry 
plants,  but  permits  the  water  to  go  singing  past  his  field 
of  beets. 

Plants  and  trees  require  moisture  as  well  as  sunshine 
and  soil,  and  for  three  reasons :  first,  that  the  tiny  roots 
may  extract  the  chemical  qualities  from  the  soil;  then, 
that  there  may  be  sap  and  juice;  finally,  that  there  may 
be  moisture  to  evaporate  or  transpire  from  the  leaves. 
But  while  all  plant- life  requires  moisture,  all  kinds  of  it 
do  not  require  the  same  amount,  nor  do  they  desire  to 
receive  it  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  manner. 
Just  as  the  skilful  teacher  studies  the  individualities  of 
fifty  different  boys,  endeavoring  to  discover  how  he  may 
most  wisely  vary  his  methods  to  obtain  the  best  results 
from  each,  so  the  scientific  farmer  studies  his  fifty  differ- 
ent plants  or  trees  and  adjusts  his  artificial  "rainfall" 
in  the  way  which  will  produce  the  highest  outcome. 
With  the  aid  of  colleges,  experimental  farms,  and  county 
institutes,  wonderful  progress  has  been  made  along  these 
lines  in  recent  years.  This  progress  will  continue  until 
the  agriculture  and  horticulture  practised  on  the  little 
farms  of  Arid  America  shall  match  the  marvellous  re- 
sults won  by  research  and  inventive  genius  in  every  other 
field  of  human  endeavor. 

This  is  the  miracle  of  irrigation  upon  its  scientific 
side.* 

*  For  full  explanation  of  practical  methods  of  irrigation,  see 
Appendix. 


Ipart  ScconD 
REAL    UTOPIAS    OF    THE    ARID    WEST 

"At  every  new  stage  of  the  history  of  the  American  settlement, 
we  are  afresh  reminded  that  colonies  are  planted  by  the  uneasy. 
The  discontent  that  comes  from  poverty  and  financial  reverse,  that 
which  is  born  of  political  unrest,  and  that  which  has  no  other  cause 
than  feverish  thirst  for  novelty  and  hazardous  adventure,  had  each 
a  share  in  impelling  Englishmen  to  emigrate.  But  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  religion  was  the  dominant  concern— one  might  al- 
most say  the  dominant  passion — of  the  English  race,  and  it  supplied 
much  the  most  efficient  motive  to  colonization.  Not  only  did  it 
propel  men  to  America,  but  it  acted  as  a  distributing  force  on  this 
side  of  the  sea,  producing  secondary  colonies  by  expelling  from  a 
new  plantation  the  discontented  and  the  persecuted  to  make  fresh 
breaks  in  the  wilderness  for  new  settlements." — EDWARD  EGGLE- 
STON,  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  MORMON"   COMMONWEALTH 

To  study  the  human  side  of  things  in  the  arid  region 
of  the  Far  AVest,  we  must  begin  with  the  Mormon  Com- 
monwealth of  Utah.  This  is  true  for  a  number  of  excel- 
lent reasons.  We  find  here  the  earliest  development  of 
any  consequence.  Although  irrigation  is  older  than  his- 
tory, it  was  never  practised  upon  any  considerable  scale 
by  Anglo-Saxons  until  the  Mormon  pioneers  turned  the 
waters  of  City  Creek  upon  the  alkaline  soil  of  Salt  Lake 
Valley  in  the  summer  of  1847. 

In  Utah,  almost  alone  of  the  far-western  States,  settle- 
ment began  with  home-making  pure  and  simple.  Irriga- 
tion was  the  primal  and  single  industry  until  a  common- 
wealth had  been  established.  In  California,  in  Colorado, 
in  Nevada,  in  Idaho,  and  in  Montana,  mining,  rather 
than  agriculture,  was  the  motive  which  induced  the  or- 
iginal settlement  by  Americans,  and  irrigation  grew  up 
only  as  an  adjunct  to  the  mining  camp.  In  Wyoming, 
and  in  a  less  degree  elsewhere,  stock-raising  was  the  first 
pursuit  and  irrigation  was  used  merely  to  flood  the  bot- 
tom land  and  grow  crops  of  coarse,  wild  hay  for  the  win- 
ter feeding  of  cattle.  In  Washington  and  Oregon  the 
first  settlements  were  made  along  the  humid  coast  re- 
gion, and  the  arid  parts  of  those  States  were  settled,  in 

51 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

such  measure  as  they  have  been  settled  at  all,  by  the 
overflow  of  those  original  currents  of  population.  But 
in  Utah  the  motive  was  home-building,  and  the  pursuit 
was  agriculture  for  its  own  sake. 

Furthermore,  we  find  in  Utah,  and  nowhere  else,  an 
entire  and  distinct  people,  who  have  grown  up  under  one 
strong  and  simple  industrial  system,  and  have  brought 
that  system  to  its  logical  results.  This  experience  covers 
half  a  century,  and  cannot  be  objected  to  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  an  experiment,  the  results  of  which  remain  to 
be  demonstrated. 

Finally,  partly  because  of  these  several  reasons  and 
partly  because  the  Mormon  fugitives  possessed  no  capital 
except  their  leader's  brains  and  their  own  hard  hands, 
the  economic  institutions  of  Utah  are  the  natural  out- 
growth of  the  conditions  of  an  arid  land.  Utah  is  the 
product  of  its  environment.  As  we  study  it  we  shall 
see  the  economic  tendencies  underlying  and  shaping  the 
industrial  life  of  all  communities  which  find  their  life- 
current  in  the  irrigation  canal  and  are  surrounded  by 
the  rich  and  varied,  but  wholly  undeveloped,  resources 
of  our  far-western  country.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that 
the  Mormon  Commonwealth  suggests  itself  irresistibly 
as  the  starting-point  of  any  proper  study  of  our  subject. 

What  did  the  pioneers  have  to  start  with  ?  What  have 
they  accomplished  in  fifty  years  ?  How  did  they  do  it  ? 
In  the  answers  to  these  questions  we  may  find  a  flood  of 
light  for  the  future  of  the  West,  but  only  upon  condition 
that  the  answers  be  sought  in  a  spirit  of  perfect  candor 
and  without  prejudice  either  in  favor  of  or  against  the 
interesting  people  of  the  Utah  mountains. 

On  July  24,  1847,  the  Mormon  caravan  emerged  from 

52 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

the  mouth  of  Emigration  Canyon  into  the  valley  of  the 
Great  Salt  Lake.  It  was  a  beautiful  picture  that  greeted 
the  eyes  of  the  fugitives  as  they  rested  here  to  enjoy  the 
shade  of  the  cottonwoods  and  listen  to  the  music  of  the 
mountain  torrent  and  the  birds.  Out  of  the  chill  air  of 
the  higher  altitudes,  out  of  the  dark  shadows  of  the 
picturesque  chasm,  they  had  come  by  a  sudden  turn 
face  to  face  with  a  broad,  sunlit  valley,  which  sloped 
gently  away  to  the  shore  of  an  inland  sea.  On  the  east, 
the  Wasatch  mountains  reared  their  brown  and  rifted  bar- 
riers until  their  summits  were  lost  in  a  crown  of  eternal 
snows.  To  the  south  and  west  the  Oquirrhs  marshalled 
their  peaks  into  the  waters  of  the  lake.  Below  them, 
valley  and  lake  ;  around  them  on  every  side,  mountains 
and  more  mountains ;  over  them,  the  impalpable  sky — 
this  was  the  vision  which  burst  suddenly  upon  the  tired 
eyes  of  the  pilgrims. 

When  they  had  proceeded  a  little  farther  they  caught 
sight  of  a  large  fresh  lake  some  miles  to  the  south,  emp- 
tying its  surplus  waters  into  an  inland  sea  through  a 
slender  river,  which  shone  like  a  ribbon  of  silver.  •  The 
comparison  suggested  by  these  strange  conditions  might 
have  occurred  to  a  duller  mind  than  that  of  Brigham 
Young,  who  felt  that  he  was  a  Moses  leading  a  new  tribe 
of  Israel  to  a  new  promised  land.  The  fresh  lake  was 
the  sea  of  Tiberius ;  the  salt  one,  the  Dead  Sea ;  the 
river  was,  of  course,  the  Jordan.  This,  then,  was  the 
new  Palestine,  and  here  the  leader  and  his  followers 
would  build  the  new  Jerusalem  !  Advancing  a  few 
miles  into  the  valley,  and  halting  near  the  banks  of  a 
roaring  brook,  Brigham  Young  struck  his  staff  upon  the 
ground  and  exclaimed,  "  Here  we  will  rear  our  temple  in 

53 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

holiness  to  the  Lord."  It  is  above  this  spot  that  Sculp- 
tor Dallin's  graceful  figure  of  the  Angel  Moroni  now 
looks  down  from  a  stately  pile  of  Utah  granite,  reared 
at  a  cost  of  forty  years'  lahor  and  six  million  dollars. 

The  pioneers  possessed  very  little  cash  capital  when 
they  arrived  in  the  valley  which  was  to  be  the  heart  of  a 
future  commonwealth.  This  was  not  a  serious  misfort- 
une, since  there  was  little  that  money  would  buy  in 
Utah  at  that  time,  or  anywhere  within  one  thousand 
miles  east,  west,  north,  or  south.  They  had  located  at 
almost  the  exact  geographical  centre  of  that  great  arid 
region  whose  modern  agricultural  era  they  were  destined 
to  inaugurate.  Surrounded  by  extraordinary  wealth, 
there  was  but  one  thing  which  could  pass  current  as  a 
medium  of  exchange  in  this  primeval  wilderness.  This 
one  thing  was  labor,  and  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
of  labor  has  been  the  cardinal  doctrine  in  Utah's  econom- 
ic faith  from  the  beginning  down  to  the  present  hour. 
Besides  their  willing  industry,  the  Mormons  had  brought 
with  them  the  contents  of  seventy-two  wagons,  about 
one  hundred  horses,  less  than  half  as  many  mules  and 
oxen,  nineteen  cows  and  a  few  chicken.  It  was  with  this 
capital  that  they  began  the  making  of  Utah.  But  at  the 
very  threshold  of  their  life  in  a  new  country  they  were 
confronted  by  something  utterly  strange  to  them  in  the 
conditions  of  agriculture. 

First  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  Mormons  encount- 
ered the  problem  of  aridity,  and  discovered  that  its  suc- 
cessful solution  was  the  price  of  existence.  Brigham 
Young  had  lived  in  Vermont,  Ohio,  Missouri,  and  Il- 
linois. Neither  he  nor  any  of  his  followers  had  ever 
seen  a  country  where  the  rainfall  did  not  suffice  for  agri- 


MAP   SHOWING  THE  STRIKING   SIMILARITY  BETWEEN  PALESTINE 
AND   SALT   LAKE  VALLEY,  UTAH 

(By  courtesy  of  the  Rio  Grande  Western  R.  R.) 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

culture,  nor  ever  read  of  one  save  in  the  Bible.  But 
they  quickly  learned  that  they  had  staked  their  whole 
future  upon  a  region  which  could  not  produce  a  spear  of 
tame  grass,  an  ear  of  corn,  nor  a  kernel  of  wheat  with- 
out skilful  irrigation.  Of  the  art  of  irrigation  they 
were  utterly  ignorant.  But  the  need  of  beginning  a 
planting  was  urgent  and  pressing,  for  their  slender  stock 
of  provisions  would  not  long  protect  them  from  starva- 
tion. 

It  was  this  emergency  which  produced  the  first  irriga- 
tion canal  ever  built  by  white  men  in  the  United  States. 
Mormons  are  prone  to  believe  that  the  suggestion  of  this 
work  was  a  revelation  from  God  to  the  head  of  the 
Church.  Other  traditions  ascribe  it  to  the  advice  of 
friendly  Indians  ;  to  the  example  of  the  Mexicans ;  to 
the  shrewd  intuition  with  which  the  leader  had  met  all 
the  trials  encountered  in  the  course  of  his  adventurous 
pilgrimage.  Whatever  the  source  of  the  inspiration,  he 
quickly  set  his  men  at  work  to  divert  the  waters  of  City 
Creek  through  a  rude  ditch  and  to  prepare  the  ground 
for  Utah's  first  farm.  These  crystal  waters  now  furnish 
the  domestic  supply  for  a  city  of  sixty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants. The  late  President  Wilford  Woodruff,  who  was 
one  of  the  party  assigned  to  the  work  of  digging  the  first 
canal,  related  that  when  the  water  was  turned  out  upon 
the  desert  the  soil  was  so  hard  that  the  point  of  a  plough 
would  scarcely  penetrate  it.  There  was  also  much  white 
alkali  on  the  surface.  It  was,  therefore,  with  no  absolute 
conviction  of  success  that  the  pioneers  planted  the  very 
last  of  their  stock  of  potatoes  and  awaited  the  result  of 
the  experiment.  The  crop  prospered  in  spite  of  all  ob- 
stacles, and  demonstrated  that  a  living  could  be  wrung 

55 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

from  the  forbidding  soil  of  the  desert  when  men  should 
learn  to  adapt  their  industry  to  the  conditions. 

Such  was  the  humble  beginning  of  modern  agriculture 
in  Arid  America.  The  success  of  this  desperate  expedi- 
ent to  preserve  the  existence  of  a  fugitive  people  in  the 
vast  solitude  has  made  Utah  our  classic  land  of  irrigation, 
and  given  the  Mormons  their  just  claim  as  the  pioneer 
irrigators  of  the  United  States.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  they  survived  other  hardships,  including  the  devas- 
tation of  their  first  crops  by  swarms  of  crickets,  that  the 
hardy  settlers  were  able  to  celebrate  a  genuine  harvest- 
home,  and  to  feel  that  the  ground  was  at  last  firm  be- 
neath their  feet.  Then  began  that  long  era  of  material 
prosperity  which  will  never  cease  until  the  people  depart 
from  the  industrial  system  established  by  Brigham 
Young. 

It  is  this  industrial  system  which  makes  the  Mormons 
well  worthy  of  study  at  this  time.  Nothing  just  like  it 
exists  elsewhere  upon  any  considerable  scale,  yet  its 
leading  principles  are  certainly  capable  of  general  appli- 
cation. Good  Mormons  regard  the  system,  like  all  their 
blessings,  as  a  direct  revelation  of  God.  Many  others 
consider  it  the  intellectual  product  of  a  great  man's 
brain.  But  when  it  is  studied  in  connection  with  Mor- 
mon colonization,  it  is  plain  that  the  system  was  born  of 
the  necessities  of  the  place  and  time — that  it  is  the  legit- 
imate product  of  the  peculiar  environment  of  the  arid 
region.  The  forces  that  have  made  the  civilization  of 
Utah  will  make  the  civilization  of  western  America.  It 
is  in  this  view  of  the  matter  that  we  shall  find  our  justi- 
fication for  a  careful  study  of  the  Mormon  structure  of 
industry  and  society. 

no 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

The  economic  life  of  Utah  is  founded  on  the  general 
ownership  of  land.  Speaking  broadly,  all  are  proprie- 
tors, none  are  tenants.  Land  monopoly  was  discounte- 
nanced from  the  beginning.  All  were  encouraged  to 
take  so  much  land  as  they  could  apply  to  a  beneficial 
purpose.  None  were  permitted  to  secure  land  merely  to 
hold  it  out  of  use  for  speculation.  The  corner-stone  of 
the  system  was  industrialism — the  theory  that  all  should 
work  for  what  they  were  to  have,  and  that  all  should 
have  what  they  had  worked  for.  In  order  to  realize 
this  result,  it  was  necessary  that  each  family  should  own 
as  much  land  as  it  could  use  to  advantage,  and  no  more. 

The  adoption  of  this  principle  was  plainly  due  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  which  the  leader  saw  about  him.  He 
instantly  realized  that  value  resided  in  water  rather  than 
in  land ;  that  there  was  much  more  land  than  water ; 
that  water  could  only  be  conserved  and  distributed  at 
great  expense. 

If  he  had  settled  in  a  land  of  abundant  rainfall  it  is 
improbable  that  he  would  have  set  such  severe  limitations 
upon  the  amount  of  land  which  individuals  should  ac- 
quire. In  that  case  he  would,  perhaps,  have  thought  it 
well  for  his  people  to  take  all  the  land  they  could  possibly 
obtain  under  the  law,  and  thus  enjoy  large  speculative 
possibilities.  But  if  he  had  pursued  this  policy  in  Utah 
he  could  not  have  accommodated  the  thousands  whom 
he  expected  to  follow  him  in  the  early  future.  He  thus 
found  it  imperatively  necessary  to  restrict  the  amount  of 
laud  which  each  family  should  acquire,  suiting  it  to  their 
actual  needs.  He  came  from  a  country  which  had  been 
settled  in  farms  ranging  from  two  hundred  to  four  hun- 
dred acres  in  size.  The  reduction  in  the  farm  unit 

57 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

which  he  now  proposed  must  have  seemed  nothing  less 
than  startling  to  his  followers.  It  is  plain  that  in  pro- 
posing such  an  innovation  he  not  only  comprehended  the 
social  necessities  of  the  situation,  but  anticipated,  with 
remarkable  foresight,  the  possibilities  of  intensive  agri- 
culture by  means  of  irrigation. 

The  first  settlement  which  he  planned  was,  of  course, 
Salt  Lake  City  and  its  neighborhood.  This  became  the 
model  of  all  future  colonies.  It  was  laid  out  in  such  a 
way  as  to  secure  an  equitable  division  of  land  values 
among  all  the  inhabitants. 

The  city  blocks  consist  of  ten  acres  each,  divided  into 
eight  lots  of  one  and  a  quarter  acres.  These  lots  were 
assigned  to  professional  and  business  men.  Next  there 
was  a  tier  of  five-acre  lots.  These  were  assigned  to  me- 
chanics. Then  there  were  tiers  of  ten-acre  and  of  twenty- 
acre  lots.  These  went  to  farmers,  according  to  the  size 
of  their  families.  Under  this  arrangement  every  colon- 
ist was  a  small  landed  proprietor,  owning  a  certain 
amount  of  irrigated  soil  from  which  he  could  readily  pro- 
duce the  necessities  of  life.  The  division  of  land  values 
was  remarkably  even,  for  what  one  man  lacked  in 
area  of  his  possessions  he  gained  in  location.  The  small 
lots  were  close  to  the  centre  of  business ;  the  largo  lots 
more  remote  from  that  centre.  As  the  place  grew  in 
course  of  years  from  an  emigrants'  camp  to  a  populous 
city,  with  paved  streets,  domestic  water,  electric  lights, 
and  railways,  the  inevitable  rise  in  values  was  distributed 
with  remarkably  even  hand.  Not  a  single  family  or  indi- 
vidual failed  to  share  in  the  great  fund  of  "  unearned 
increment" which  arose  from  increasing  population  and 
growing  public  improvements. 

58 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

This  principle  of  universal  land  ownership,  and  of  care- 
ful division  according  to  location  and  of  differing  needs 
of  various  classes,  has  been  followed  throughout  the 
Mormon  settlements  of  Utah  and  surrounding  States, 
and  is  being  duplicated  to-day  in  the  latest  colonies  es- 
tablished by  this  people. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  the  Mormon  land  system 
rested  on  individual  proprietorship.  There  never  was 
any  attempt  at  community  ownership.  The  unit  of  the 
State  was  the  family  and  the  home.  But  the  moment 
we  pass  from  the  sphere  of  individual  labor  we  encounter 
another  principle,  which  was  always  applied,  though  not 
always  by  the  same  methods,  to  public  utilities.  This 
was  the  principle  of  public  ownership  and  control. 

If  the  Mormon  leaders  had  desired  to  organize  their 
industrial  life  in  a  way  to  make  large  private  fortunes 
for  themselves,  no  single  item  in  the  list  of  Utah's  re- 
sources would  have  offered  a  better  chance  for  specula- 
tion than  the  water  supply.  It  was  perfectly  feasible 
under  the  law  for  private  individuals  or  companies  to  ap- 
propriate these  waters,  construct  canals,  sell  water  rights, 
and  collect  annual  rental.  By  adopting  this  method, 
which  widely  prevails  in  other  western  States,  they  could 
have  laid  every  field,  orchard,  and  garden — every  in- 
dividual and  family — under  tribute  to  them  and  their 
descendants  forever.  Neither  in  law  nor  in  practice,  at 
that  time,  was  it  any  more  a  moral  and  economic  wrong 
to  appropriate  privately  and  hold  against  the  public  the 
natural  wealth  of  the  streams  than  it  was  to  do  the  same 
with  the  natural  wealth  of  the  mineral  belts  on  govern- 
ment land. 

Probably  the  Mormons  owed  their  escape  from  the 

59 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

misfortune  of  private  irrigation  works  mostly  to  the  fact 
that  this  feature  of  their  institutions  was  established  when 
none  of  their  people  possessed  sufficient  private  capital  to 
engage  in  costly  enterprises.  They  started  upon  a  basis 
of  equality,  for  they  were  equally  poor.  They  could  buy 
water  rights  only  with  their  labor.  This  labor  they  ap- 
plied in  co-operation,  and  canal  stock  was  issued  to  each 
man  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  work  he  had  con- 
tributed to  its  construction.  This  in  turn  was  deter- 
mined by  the  amount  of  land  he  owned,  the  owner  of 
twenty  acres  doing  just  twice  as  much  work  as  the  owner 
of  ten.  Here  we  see  the  influence  of  aridity  not  only 
favoring,  but  compelling,  the  adoption  of  the  principle 
of  associative  enterprise,  as  mentioned  in  a  previous 
chapter.  But  before  discussing  the  wider  results  of  this 
influence  in  the  life  of  Utah,  it  is  important  to  observe 
the  characteristic  forms  of  agriculture  which  grew  out 
of  these  new  conditions. 

We  have  seen  that  Brigham  Young  had  made  twenty 
acres  the  maximum  size  of  farms  in  the  Salt  Lake  settle- 
ment. He  now  proceeded  to  lay  down  a  philosophy  very* 
different  from  that  which  prevailed  on  the  large  farms 
of  the  wheat  and  corn  country  whence  he  had  come.  Ho 
urged  that  each  family  should  realize  the  nearest  possi- 
ble approach  to  absolute  industrial  independence  within 
the  boundaries  of  its  own  small  farm.  His  sermons  in 
the  tabernacle  dealt  less  in  theology  than  in  worldly  com- 
mon-sense. The  result  is  an  agricultural  system  peculiar 
to  Utah. 

Just  as  we  have  the  cotton-belt  in  Texas,  the  corn-belt 
in  Nebraska,  the  wheat-belt  in  Dakota,  and  the  orange- 
district  in  California,  so  in  Utah  we  have  the  land  of  the 

60 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

diversified  farm.  This  is  the  first  and  one  of  the  most 
precious  fruits  of  the  industrialism  which  had  been  so 
deeply  rooted  in  the  plan  of  general  land  ownership. 

Much  of  the  misfortune  which  the  settlers  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  have  endured  during  the  past  decade  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  their  industrial  system  was  founded 
on  the  speculative  instinct.  They  acquired  large  farms, 
because  they  hoped  to  get  rich  out  of  the  rise  in  land. 
They  engaged  in  the  production  of  single  crops,  because 
they  were  gambling  on  the  hope  of  great  prices  for  these 
staples.  They  mortgaged  their  homesteads  to  make 
costly  improvements,  because  they  had  the  utmost  faith 
in  future  big  prices  for  the  land  and  its  product.  It 
is  very  easy  to  comprehend  the  virtues  of  Utah  industrial- 
ism when  we  may  make  use  of  a  Texas  cotton  plantation 
or  a  Dakota  wheat  farm  for  a  background.  In  the  one 
case  we  see  the  little  unmortgaged  farm,  its  crops  in- 
sured by  irrigation,  systematically  producing  a  variety  of 
things  required  for  the  family  consumption.  A  generous 
living  is  within  the  control  of  the  proprietor  of  such  a 
home.  In  the  other  case  we  see  the  single  crop  exposed 
to  the  mercy  of  the  weather  and  the  markets,  its  owner 
employing  many  hired  hands,  and  going  to  the  town  to 
buy  with  cash  nearly  all  that  is  necessary  to  feed  his 
family  and  laborers. 

The  Utah  system  was  clearly  the  outgrowth  of  the 
peculiar  conditions  with  which  the  Mormons  dealt.  They 
were  so  far  removed  from  all  centres  of  production  as  to 
make  self-sufficiency  an  imperative  condition  of  existence. 
Hence  they  were  taught  the  gospel  of  industrial  inde- 
pendence in  its  purest  and  most  primitive  form.  And 
self-sufficiency  is  the  most  striking  characteristic  of  their 

Cl 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

civilization  to-day.  Wars  and  panics  have  swep  t  the 
country  since  the  pioneers  built  their  homes  in  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  but  they  and  theirs  have  not  gone  hungry  for  a 
day  or  an  hour.  Nor  need  they  do  so  while  water  runs 
down  hill  and  mother  earth  yields  her  increase. 

The  conquest  of  Utah  began  with  the  establishment 
of  agriculture,  which  is  everywhere  the  foundation  of 
civilization.  Brigham  Young  realized,  as  the  American 
people  may  well  do  to-day,  that  there  can  be  no  prosper- 
ity if  agriculture  languishes.  He  realized  that  whatever 
the  Mormon  people  might  have  in  the  future — whatever 
of  factories,  stores,  and  banks,  whatever  of  churches  tem- 
ples, and  tabernacles — must  come  primarily  from  the 
surplus  profits  of  the  soil. 

As  soon  as  his  people  had  been  supplied  with  food  and 
shelter,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  development  of  a 
broader  industrial  life.  Workshops,  stores,  and  banks 
were  necessary  to  furnish  facilities  for  manufacture,  dis- 
tribution, and  exchange.  All  these  enterprises  were  un- 
dertaken in  a  co-operative  way  under  the  familiar  forms 
of  the  joint-stock  company.  Those  who  were  unwilling 
to  engage  in  them  upon  these  terms  generally  left  the 
church  and  set  up  for  themselves.  At  the  beginning 
there  was  no  capital  for  such  undertakings  except  the 
capital  which  resided  in  every  man's  land  and  labor — no 
wealth  but  the  commonwealth.  As  all  had  started  on  a 
basis  of  equality,  so  all  were  given  an  equal  chance  to 
participate  in  the  new  industrial,  mercantile,  and  bank- 
ing enterprises  of  the  Territory.  When  a  factory  or 
store  was  to  be  started  subscription  papers  were  circu- 
lated and  everybody  urged  to  take  some  of  the  stock. 
Payments  were  made  sometimes  in  cash,  more  often  in 

62 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

products,  not  infrequently  in  labor.  Of  one  thing  there 
has  never  been  a  scarcity  in  Utah — this  is  the  chance  to 
work.  And  labor  has  always  been  exchangeable  there 
for  other  commodities,  including  bank  and  mercantile 
stock.  Otherwise  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to 
have  secured  anything  like  the  wide  distribution  of  these 
stocks  which  now  prevails.' 

In  the  early  years  the  industries  were  of  a  crude  sort. 
Everything  had  to  be  hauled  in  ox-teams  over  a  thousand 
miles  of  deserts,  plains,  and  mountains.  The  people 
used  almost  no  money  in  their  daily  transactions.  As  a 
medium  of  exchange  they  had  printed  slips  of  paper 
known  as  "  tithing-house  scrip."  This  answered  every 
purpose  of  exchange  money,  while  the  prices  of  com- 
modities were  regulated  by  the  standard  of  values  which 
prevailed  elsewhere.  But  while  the  local  scrip  did  very 
well  for  all  home  purposes,  it  did  not  enable  the  people 
to  purchase  the  supplies  of  machinery  which  they  need- 
ed from  abroad.  The  process  of  equipping  their  factories 
was,  therefore,  necessarily  slow,  but  they  rapidly  devel- 
oped an  army  of  skilled  artisans,  which  was  constantly 
augmented  by  immigration.  But  even  without  assis- 
tance from  the  great  world  which  lay  so  far  beyond  the 
borders  of  their  own  valleys  marvellous  progress  was 
achieved  in  the  arts  and  industries. 

Brigham  Young  was  strenuously  opposed  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mines  by  his  people,  believing  that 
what  they  might  gain  in  wealth  from  that  source  would 
be  much  more  than  offset  by  the  demoralization  which 
would  come  to  his  industrial  forces  with  the  rise  of  the 
speculative  spirit.  Above  all  other  virtues  he  placed 
that  of  sober  industry,  earning  its  bread  in  the  sweat  of 

63 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

men's  faces.  That  the  mines  would  some  day  be  worked 
by  "  Gentiles  "  he  had  no  doubt,  and  he  rightly  calcu- 
lated that  his  own  people  would  enjoy  more  prosperity 
by  feeding  the  miners  than  by  working  the  mines.  A 
few  of  the  many  millions  afterwards  taken  from  the 
mountains  around  Salt  Lake  would  have  facilitated  the 
growth  and  equipment  of  the  Mormon  industries  im- 
mensely during  the  early  years.  But  time  and  patience 
accomplished  in  the  end  all  —  perhaps  more  than  an 
abundance  of  original  capital  might  have  done.  Nearly 
all  the  industries  essential  to  a  complex  and  symmetrical 
business  economy  have  been  established  for  many  years. 
Every  important  settlement  has  its  co-operative  store 
and  bank.  From  the  great  beet-sugar  factory  at  Lehi 
down  to  the  smallest  mercantile  enterprise  in  the  small- 
est hamlet,  the  business  is  owned  by  a  multitude  of  stock- 
holders. 

The  capital  represents  the  surplus  profits  of  the  many. 
The  system  bears  no  likeness  to  Socialism.  Nothing  is 
owned  by  virtue  of  citizenship  nor  of  membership  in 
the  church.  No  one  owns  a  dollar's  worth  of  stock  who 
has  not  earned  and  paid  for  it.  The  system  is  nothing 
but  the  joint-stock  company  with  what  may  be  called  a 
generous  and  friendly  interpretation.  That  is  to  say,  it 
is  really  desired  that  everybody  shall  have  an  interest, 
and  that  all  shall  share  the  benefits.  It  should  not  be 
understood  by  any  means  that  all  have  an  equal  owner- 
ship in  these  various  enterprises,  for  the  Mormon  system 
has  not  resulted  in  making  men  equally  successful.  All 
have  had  an  equal  chance  however,  and  the  weak  have 
been  watched  over  and  assisted  by  the  strong.  In- 
deed, this  latter  is  one  of  the  few  good  results  to  bo 

64 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

credited  to  the  exercise  of  church  authority  in  secular 
affairs. 

It  would  be  quite  impracticable  to  attempt  to  fol- 
low the  history  of  any  considerable  number  of  the  many 
co-operative  enterprises  of  Utah.  Neither  are  figures 
available  for  a  satisfactory  generalization  of  results. 
But  the  whole  system  is  typified  in  the  experience  of  one 
monumental  enterprise — Zion's  Co-operative  Mercantile 
Institution.  This  great  house  is  in  a  sense  the  mother 
and  the  model  of  all  the  Mormon  stores  in  Utah  and  its 
surrounding  States.  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Webber,  the  suc- 
cessful superintendent  of  "  Z.  C.  M.  I.,"  as  it  is  famil- 
iarly called,  describes  the  history  of  the  enterprise  as 
follows  : 

"The  Institution  was  organized  October  16,  1868; 
commenced  business  March  1,  1869  ;  was  incorporated 
for  twenty-five  years  from  October  5,  1870,  and  the 
capital  was  then  $220,000.  It  was  reincorporated  for 
fifty  years  September  30,  1895,  with  a  capital  stock  of 
$1,077,000. 

"During  the  life  of  our  first  incorporation  period  we 
have  sold  876,352,686  worth  of  merchandise,  and  paid  to 
the  railroad  and  express  companies  for  freight  $6,908,630. 

"We  have  paid  out  in  cash  dividends  $1,990,943.55, 
and  in  stock  dividends  $414,944.77.  During  the  panic 
in  1873,  for  prudential  reasons,  we  passed  our  dividend, 
and  continued  to  do  so  until  1877,  but  during  the  whole 
of  the  period  we  have  been  in  business,  some  twenty- 
seven  years,  we  have  paid  to  our  stockholders  an  average 
dividend  of  nine  and  one-third  per  cent,  for  each  and 
every  year,  or  two  hundred  and  forty-three  per  cent,  in 
all ;  $1,000  invested  in  our  capital  stock  on  the  1st  of 
E  65 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

March,  1869,  at  the  end  of  September,  1895,  when  our 
incorporation  ran  out,  had  accumulated  to  $2,014.30, 
and  in  addition  to  this  we  have  paid  upon  this  $1,000  in 
cash  dividends  the  sum  of  $4,218.05. 

"  "We  have  turned  out  in  our  manufacturing  depart- 
ments boots  and  shoes  to  the  value  of  $2,053,294.43,  and 
in  our  duck  clothing  and  shirt  factory  upwards  of 
$80,000  worth.  Last  year  (1895)  it  was  an  off-year  with 
our  manufacturing  departments,  but  we  turned  out 
75,400  pairs  of  boots  and  shoes,  and  15,648  dozen  over- 
alls, shirts,  etc." 

This  is  the  history  of  Utah's  largest  co-operative  un- 
dertaking. It  is  a  history  which  no  friend  of  co-operative 
effort  will  blush  to  read,  for  it  proves  that  a  great  busi- 
ness can  be  as  successfully  administered  in  the  interest 
of  the  many  as  in  the  interest  of  a  few.  The  latest 
and  largest  of  the  Mormon  industrial  enterprises  is  the 
beet  -  sugar  factory,  owned  by  seven  hundred  stock- 
holders, which  in  1895  produced  considerably  more  than 
700,000,000  pounds  of  sugar  and  paid  a  cash  dividend 
of  ten  per  cent.  Its  later  dividends  are  much  larger. 
It  also  furnished  a  profitable  market  for  the  products  of 
many  irrigated  fields. 

While  the  most  satisfactory  results  of  co-operative  en- 
terprise have  been  obtained  in  the  last  two  decades,  much 
was  achieved  in  the  early  day.  As  early  as  1850,  when 
Salt  Lake  Valley  had  been  settled  less  than  three  years, 
the  industrial  products  amounted  to  only  a  little  less 
than  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Ten  years  later 
they  had  mounted  nearly  to  the  million  mark,  and  in 
1870  they  considerably  exceeded  two  and  a  quarter  mill- 
ions. In  1895  the  total  was  close  to  six  millions.  The 

66 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

growth  of  these  hard-won  industries  has  naturally  fos- 
tered a  feeling  of  intense  loyalty  to  home  products. 
Foreign  goods  are  not  a  badge  of  honor.  The  Utah  man 
wears  Utah  clothes,  made  in  Utah  factories,  from  wool 
sheared  from  the  back  of  Utah  sheep,  with  the  same 
pride  that  a  New  York  man  wears  a  London  hat  and  a 
New  York  woman  a  Paris  gown. 

Let  us  look  now  at  the  broader  results  of  the  Mormon 
labor  in  the  wilderness.  The  church  historian,  Mr.  A. 
Milton  Musser,  has  made  a  careful  estimate  of  the  finan- 
cial results  which  may  fairly  be  credited  to  the  irriga- 
tion industry  in  Utah.  In  doing  so  he  communicated 
with  church  leaders  throughout  the  State  and  compiled 
the  results  of  his  correspondence  with  the  utmost  care. 
The  statement  is  given  just  as  he  prepared  it,  without 
attempt  to  discuss  it  in  detail.  To  fully  comprehend  it 
however,  the  reader  must  remember  that  the  Mormons 
began  in  poverty,  having  almost  nothing  to  invest  ex- 
cept the  labor  of  their  hands  and  brains,  and  that  all 
they  have  expended  in  a  period  of  nearly  fifty  years  for  all 
classes  of  improvements — from  the  first  shanty  to  the 
last  turret  of  the  last  temple — came  primarily  from  the 
soil.  Here  is  the  balance-sheet  of  the  Mormon  people  as 
Mr.  Musser  prepared  it  : 

Cost  of  establishing  the  10,000  farms  ($187.50 

per  farm  per  annum) $75,000,000 

Cost  of  making  irrigation  canals  and  ditches 

($37.50  per  farm  per  annum) 15,000,000 

Cost  of  irrigating  10,000  farms  and  gardens 

($24.00  each  per  annum) 9,600,000 

Building  factories 5,000,000 

Building  temples 8,000,000 

G7 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Building  churches  and  schools $4,000,000 

Cost  of  missionary  work 10,000,000 

Cost  of  immigrating  and  sustaining  Hie  poor        8,000,000 

Living  of  the  farmers  ($875  to  each  family 

per  annum) 350,000,000 

Cost  of  roads  and  bridges  in  mountains  and 

valleys 4,000,000 

Cost  of  Indian  wars,  building  forts,  stockades, 

breaking  up  settlements,  etc 5,000,000 

Cost  of  feeding  and  clothing  Indians  and 
establishing  Indian  missions,  farms, 
schools,  etc 2,000,000 

Cost  of  resisting  the  invasion  of  the  army  of 
1857,  and  of  the  people  of  Salt  Lake 
county  and  the  counties  north  moving 
south  into  middle  and  southern  Utah 6,000,000 

Loss  sustained  by  crickets,  locusts,  and  grass- 
hoppers   2,500,000 

Unsuccessful  early  experiments  in  making 
iron,  sugar,  paper,  nails,  leather,  cotton- 
raising,  mining,  etc 6,000,000 

Cost  of  defence  against  anti-polygamy  legisla- 
tion believed  to  be  unconstitutional 3,000,000 

Heavy  freight  rates  from  the  Missouri  river 

and  the  Pacific  coast  before  the  railroads  8,000,000 

Cost  of  establishing  the  Overland  Mail  and 
Express  Company,  purchase  of  Fort 
Bridger,  and  establishment  of  Fort  Sup- 
ply, abandoned  and  afterward  absorbed 
by  the  army  of  1857 2,000,000 

Protecting  overland  travel,  succoring  and 
feeding  California,  Oregon,  and  other 
emigrants 1,500,000 

Cost  of  colonizing  Carson  and  Green  River 
counties,  abandoned  because  of  the 
army  of  1857 2,000,000 

Cost  of  establishing  colonies  on  Salmon 
68 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

river,  iu  Lower  California,  and  the  sugar 

plantation  near  Honolulu $1,500,000 

Cost  of  local  telegraph  aad  railroad  lines 3,000,000 

Cost  of  obtaining  fuel,  and  building  and 
fencing  materials,  from  the  rugged 
mountains  and  canyons  many  miles  away  10,000,000 
Cost  of  making  settlements  on  the  Muddy, 
Call's  Landing,  Florence,  Sunset,  and 
other  localities,  afterwards  abandoned  be- 
cause of  adverse  conditions  subsequently 

developed 1,000,000 

Losses  by  fire  ($20,000  per  annum) 800,000 

Taxes 8,000,000 

Miscellaneous  expenditures 12,000,000 

$562,900,000 

Less  the  personal  property  brought  into  Utah 
by  immigrants,  such  as  cattle,  wagons, 
cash,  etc 20,000,000 


§542,900,000 

In  his  note  transmitting  these  figures  Mr.  Musser 
writes :  "The  inclosed  has  been  submitted  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  Presidents  Woodruff,  Cannon,  and  Smith,  and 
Bishops  Preston,  Burton,  and  Winder,  as  well  as  to  others 
conversant  with  such  matters.  All  agree  that  the  esti- 
mates are  as  fair  as  they  can  be  given."  And  he  adds, 
with  a  reverence  characteristic  of  his  people:  "While 
much  of  our  prosperity  is  due  to  industrious,  temperate, 
and  frugal  habits  of  life,  yet  we  never  lose  sight  of  the 
overruling  hand  of  the  Almighty  in  all  these  results,  and 
to  Him  be  given  praise  and  thanksgiving  without  stint." 

In  a  private  letter  accompanying  these  statistics  His- 
torian Musser  directed  attention  to  the  fact  that  upon 
this  showing  each  Mormon  farmer  enjoyed  an  average 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

income  of  four  hundred  and  eighty-two  dollars  above  the 
cost  of  living  for  each  of  the  more  than  forty  years  which 
the  statement  covers.  This  is  a  considerably  higher  re- 
turn than  the  gross  amount  averaged  by  wage  earners  in 
the  United  States. 

While  in  many  particulars  this  imposing  statement  of 
results  may  be  open  to  criticism,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  was  prepared  with  conscientious  care.  It  is  pre- 
sented here  for  what  it  may  be  worth.  To  the  writer  it 
seems  to  confirm  the  impression  of  a  vast  material  achieve- 
ment which  comes  to  any  person  upon  visiting  Utah  and 
looking  about  him.  For  the  present  purpose  the  precise 
statistical  facts  are  of  less  consequence  than  the  economic 
principles  which  have  produced  what  everybody  acknowl- 
edges to  be  a  wonderful  result.  These  principles  may  be 
briefly  summarized  as  follows : 

GENERAL  LAND  OWNERSHIP,  LIMITED  TO  THE  AMOUNT 
WHICH  FAMILIES  AND  INDIVIDUALS  COULD  APPLY  TO  A 
USEFUL  PURPOSE. 

SELF-SUFFICIENCY  IN  AGRICULTURE,  AIMING  AT  THE 
COMPLETE  ECONOMIC  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PEOPLE,  IN- 
DIVIDUALLY AND  COLLECTIVELY. 

THE  PUBLIC  OWNERSHIP  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES,  SUCH  AS 
WATER  SUPPLY  FOR  IRRIGATION  AND  DOMESTIC  USES. 

THE  CO-OPERATIVE,  OR  ASSOCIATIVE,  OWNERSHIP  AND 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  STORES,  FACTORIES,  AND  BANKS, 
THROUGH  THE  MEDIUM  OF  THE  JOINT-STOCK  COMPANY. 

These  are  the  underlying  principles  of  the  Mormon 
commonwealth.  They  are  vindicated  by  the  successful 
experience  of  the  last  half  century.  Nowhere  else  do  so 
large  a  percentage  of  the  people  own  their  homes  free 
from  incumbrance.  Nowhere  else  has  labor  received  so 

70 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

fair  a  share  of  what  it  has  created.  Nowhere  else  has  the 
common  prosperity  been  reared  upon  firmer  foundations. 
Nowhere  else  are  institutions  more  firmly  buttressed  or 
better  capable  of  resisting  violent  economic  revolutions. 
The  thunder-cloud  which  passed  over  the  land  in  1893, 
leaving  a  path  of  commercial  ruin  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  was  powerless  to  close  the  door  of  a  single 
Mormon  store,  factory,  or  bank.  Strong  in  prosperity, 
the  co-operative  industrial  and  commercial  system  stood 
immovable  in  the  hour  of  wide-spread  disaster.  The  sol- 
vency of  these  industries  is  scarcely  more  striking  than 
the  solvency  of  the  farmers  from  whom  they  draw  their 
strength.  No  other  Governor,  either  in  the  West  or  in  the 
East,  is  able  to  say  what  the  Honorable  Heber  M.  Wells 
said  in  assuming  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  new  State 
in  January,  1896.  "  We  have  in  Utah/'  said  the  young 
Governor,  "19,816  farms,  and  17,684  of  the  mare  abso- 
lutely free  of  incumbrance."  A  higher  percentage  in 
school  attendance  and  a  lower  percentage  of  illiterates 
than  even  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  is  another  of 
Utah's  proud  records. 

So  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  facts  that  are  be- 
yond dispute.  No  one  can  deny  that  the  Mormon  indus- 
trial and  commercial  system  is  correctly  described  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  nor  that  that  system  has  made  the  peo- 
ple remarkably  prosperous  in  a*i  economic  sense.  But 
for  the  purposes  of  this  book  it  is  highly  essential  to 
determine  just  what  weight  should  be  given  to  the  Mor- 
mon experience  as  a  guide  for  future  colonization  effort 
in  the  arid  West,  and  to  what  degree  the  Utah  system 
is  founded  upon  correct  principles  of  industrial  and 
social  economy. 

71 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

The  problem  can  be  summed  up  in  two  questions 
which  have  doubtless  already  occurred  to  the  reader  : 
Was  the  Utah  experience  possible  without  Brigham 
Young  ?  Was  Brigham  Young  possible  without  the 
Church  ? 

The  first  of  these  questions  may  be  answered  unhesi- 
tatingly in  the  negative.  Without  a  Brigham  Young 
there  could  have  been  no  such  record  of  achievement  in 
the  deserts  of  Utah.  He  was  the  brains  and  the  soul  of 
the  enterprise.  He  planned  with  extraordinary  sagacity 
and  wrought  with  tremendous  vigor.  Leave  out  that 
brain  and  soul — that  sagacity  and  vigor — and  we  can 
conceive  of  no  emigration  from  Nauvoo  ;  of  no  success- 
ful march  over  plain  and  mountain  ;  of  no  triumph  over 
the  almost  insuperable  difficulties  which  intervened  be- 
tween the  arrival  of  the  people  in  Salt  Lake  Valley  in 
1847  and  the  firmly  established  community  of  fifty  years 
later.  But  what  of  that  ?  The  concession  of  the  indis- 
pensable fact  of  Brigham  Young  amounts  only  to  the 
concession,  equally  applicable  to  all  human  undertak- 
ings of  magnitude,  that  leadership  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial. 

This  brings  us  to  the  other  and  more  complicated 
question:  Was  Brigham  Young  possible  without  the 
Church  ?  First  let  us  see  what  manner  of  man  he 
was. 

Born  in  Vermont,  Aof  good  native  stock,  he  had  the 
characteristics  of  the  place  and  the  race  in  a  pre-eminent 
degree.  He  was  shrewd  and  thrifty,  far-seeing  and  in- 
tensely practical.  He  was  of  coarse  fibre,  deficient  in 
the  finer  feelings,  and  devoid  of  all  imagination  of  the 
poetic  kind.  Of  his  innumerable  sermons  and  speeches 

72 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

nothing  survives  save  an  occasional  homely  maxim,  such 
as,  "  Plough  deep  and  plant  alfalfa."  Like  all  his  sayings 
and  all  his  works,  this  marks  the  mind  and  method  of 
the  materialist  rather  than  of  the  idealist.  Whatever 
else  he  really  thought  of  polygamy,  he  at  least  believed 
it  a  capital  method  of  increasing  the  population  of  a  new 
country,  and  that  happened  to  be  the  particular  work 
upon  which  his  effort  and  ambition  were  engaged. 

A  leader  of  men  ?  Most  emphatically,  but  of  the  grim 
and  masterful  sort — a  Cromwell  rather  than  a  Lincoln. 
While  no  orator,  he  had  strong  persuasive  powers.  These 
were  supported  by  splendid  enthusiasm  and  optimism. 
He  could  set  men  at  work  with  the  conviction  in  their 
minds  that  success  was  certain,  failure  impossible. 

This  man  was  successful  in  what  he  undertook  to  do. 
He  did  not  originate  Mormonism.  He  added  nothing 
to  its  creed  or  its  literature,  though  he  added  much  to 
its  power.  But  finding  the  Mormons  a  despised  and 
hunted  people,  he  set  himself  the  task  of  extricating 
them  from  intolerable  surroundings,  of  leading  them  a 
thousand  miles  across  an  almost  unexplored  country, 
and  of  founding,  in  the  midst  of  untried  conditions,  a 
commonwealth  where  they  could  rear  their  homes  and 
temples  and  wax  great  and  strong.  Who  can  doubt  that 
if  he  had  undertaken  to  build  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road, like  Ames  and  Huntington ;  to  found  a  pork-pack- 
ing business,  like  Armour ;  or  to  lead  an  army,  like  Grant, 
he  would  have  commanded  success  ?  He  had  all  the 
elements  of  a  successful  man  in  any  of  the  greater  walks 
of  life  where  pluck  and  brains,  determination  and  vast 
ambition,  are  the  requisite  qualities.  If  he  was  a  relig- 
ious fanatic,  there  never  was  another  of  his  composition. 

73 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Poet  or  orator  he  could  not  have  been ;  seer,  revelator, 
and  ecclesiastic  he  was  not,  save  to  the  superstitious 
vision  of  his  blind  followers  ;  but  great,  resourceful,  and 
of  commanding  personality  he  was — a  captain  of  industry, 
an  organizer  of  prosperity;  and  the  Utah  of  to-day  is 
his  undeniable  claim  to  fame  and  his  imperishable  monu- 
ment. 

So  much  for  the  man.  "What  of  the  Church  ?  It  was 
unquestionably  the  instrument  used  in  the  settlement 
of  Utah.  It  is  being  used  to-day  as  an  instrument  in 
settling  portions  of  Canada,  Mexico,  and  other  localities. 
Regarded  simply  as  a  Church,  it  is  successful  numerically 
and  financially.  It  is  one  of  the  few  creeds  where  secu- 
lar and  religious  affairs  are  brought  into  the  closest  as- 
sociation, and,  for  this  reason,  it  is  generally  believed 
that  church  solidarity  is  the  true  explanation  of  the 
economic  prosperity  of  the  Mormons.  This  conclusion 
rests  upon  the  theory  that  the  Church  sustains  the  in- 
dustrial system.  The  writer  emphatically  dissents  from 
this  notion,  and  confidently  asserts  that  precisely  the  re- 
verse is  the  truth — that  the  industrial  system  sustains 
the  Church. 

The  principles  upon  which  the  Mormon  industrial  and 
social  structure  was  reared  have  been  carefully  presented 
in  this  chapter.  These  principles  have  worked  success- 
fully for  fifty  years.  To  determine  the  part  which  they 
had  in  the  actual  result,  let  us  ask  ourselves  this  ques- 
tion :  Suppose  the  plans  initiated  by  Brigham  Young  had 
failed  to  give  his  followers  the  security  of  a  home  and 
the  certainty  of  a  living  ;  that  their  co-operative  industry 
had  produced  losses  rather  than  profits ;  that  their  vil- 
lage system  had  brought  social  discontent  instead  of 

74 


THE    MORMON    COMMONWEALTH 

satisfaction — what  then  ?  Is  it  conceivable  that  religious 
fanaticism  could  have  held  them  together  and  lent  such 
an  impulse  to  their  growth  that  to-day,  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after  the  death  of  Brigham  Young,  they 
should  be  growing  faster  than  ever  before,  maintaining 
more  missionaries  and  building  more  colonies  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  ?  Surely  economic  fallacy  never  pro- 
duced such  striking  results  as  these  in  any  other  instance 
known  to  history. 

It  would  perhaps  be  a  tenable  position  to  say  that  in 
Utah  a  sound  economic  system,  working  in  conjunction 
with  religious  enthusiasm,  produced  the  result  now 
known  of  all  men  ;  but  that  would  be  very  nearly  equiva- 
lent to  saying  that  the  only  way  to  solve  the  problem  of 
reclamation  and  settlement  in  the  arid  regions  is  to  turn 
the  task  over  to  the  Mormon  Church  and  to  advise  all 
who  crave  homes  to  join  that  organization.  The  writer 
believes  that  the  attraction  of  Mormonism  has  consisted 
mostly  in  what  it  offered  to  the  home-seeker,  and  that 
the  secret  of  its  cohesion  is  the  prosperity  that  has  re- 
sulted from  its  industrial  system  rather  than  the  occult 
power  of  its  creed. 

Polygamy  has  so  stirred  the  Christian  world  that  no 
man  may  speak  in  praise  of  any  of  the  Mormon  institu- 
tions except  at  the  risk  of  being  misunderstood,  or  pos- 
sibly regarded  as  an  apologist  for  what  the  nation  has 
condemned  as  a  crime  against  womanhood.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  candid  mind  can  study  the  problem  which 
confronts  the  American  people — the  problem  of  opening 
the  door  to  the  masses  of  our  citizenship  upon  the  un- 
used natural  resources  of  the  nation — without  realizing 
that  Brigham  Young  and  the  State  he  founded  furnish 

75 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

stronger  and  clearer  light  for  the  future  of  domestic 
colonization  than  any  other  experience  that  can  possibly 
be  discovered.  It  is  in  the  earnest  conviction  that  it  is 
a  high  public  service  to  show  the  virtues  of  the  Mormon 
industrial  system  that  this  chapter  is  written. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   GREELEY   COLONY   OF   COLORADO 

THE  Greeley  Colony  of  Colorado  sprang  belated  from 
the  seed  of  Fourierism  sown  broadcast  in  the  forties. 
In  all  our  social  history  there  is  no  more  interesting  page 
than  that  which  records  the  rise,  progress,  and  tem- 
porary defeat  of  the  doctrine  of  association.  Fraught 
with  the  noblest  aspirations,  and  welcomed  and  cham- 
pioned by  the  most  brilliant  minds,  it  disappointed,  in 
actual  practice,  the  high  hopes  of  its  friends.  Frangois 
Marie  Charles  Fourier  devoted  his  life  to  elaborating  his 
scheme  of  Socialism,  and  died  a  few  years  before  the 
seed  of  his  thought  was  wafted  across  the  Atlantic  to 
take  sudden  root  in  our  soil. 

The  American  impulse  of  Fourierism  arose  from  the 
miseries  of  the  hard  winter  of  1838.  The  doctrine  had 
been  imported  by  Albert  Brisbane,  a  young  gentleman  of 
wealth  and  leisure  who  had  studied  the  works  of  the 
French  philosopher  in  Paris  and  returned  to  this  country 
warm  with  these  new  hopes  for  humanity.  Availing 
himself  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  universal  dis- 
content, he  plunged  boldly  into  the  agitation  and  at- 
tracted a  remarkable  degree  of  attention.  Horace 
Greeley,  then  in  the  morning  of  his  fame,  espoused  the 
new  cause,  at  first  cautiously,  then  with  characteristic 

77 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

energy  and  daring.  The  period  of  agitation  covered  the 
years  between  1840  and  1847.  The  men  of  thought  soon 
won  the  confidence  of  the  men  of  action,  and  a  large 
number  of  associations  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
Fourierism  to  the  practical  test  were  formed  in  various 
States.  In  May,  1843,  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  in  the  Tribune: 
'•  The  doctrine  of  association  is  spreading  throughout 
the  country  with  a  rapidity  which  we  did  not  anticipate, 
and  of  which  we  had  but  little  hope.  We  receive  papers 
from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  northern  and  western  States, 
and  some  from  the  South,  containing  articles  upon  as- 
sociation, in  which  general  views  and  outlines  of  the 
system  are  given.  Efforts  are  making  in  various  parts 
of  this  State,  in  Vermont,  in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  to  establish  associations,  which  will  probably  be 
successful  in  the  course  of  the  present  year." 

There  was  not  much  difficulty  in  obtaining  recruits  for 
these  undertakings,  and  the  experiment  was  entered 
upon  with  great  enthusiasm.  With  a  single  exception, 
it  ended  in  failure.  The  most  famous  of  these  colonies 
was  Brook  Farm,  at  West  Roxbury,  nine  miles  from 
Boston.  Rev.  George  Ripley  was  the  head  of  the  enter- 
prise. With  him  were  associated,  either  as  actual  col- 
onists or  active  sympathizers  and  supporters,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Henry  D.  Thoreau, 
James  Freeman  Clarke,  William  Ellery  Channing,  Bron- 
son  Alcott,  George  Bancroft,  Charles  A.  Dana,  Margaret 
Fuller,  and  many  others  whose  names  rank  high  in  the 
annals  of  American  literature.  Never  before,  and  never 
afterwards,  was  such  a  galaxy  of  brains  assembled  in  a 
single  colony.  Most  of  them  were  then  in  young  man- 
hood, with  their  fame  all  before  them.  But  the  historian 

78 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

of  the  enterprise  sadly  relates  that,  at  the  end  of  their 
first  year  they  found  they  had  a  surplus  of  philosophers 
and  a  dearth  of  men  who  could  hoe  potatoes.  And  New 
England  has  been  smiling  about  Brook  Farm  ever  since. 
The  end  of  Fourierism  in  the  United  States  was  the  joint 
debate  between  Horace  Greeley  and  Henry  J.  Raymond 
in  their  respective  newspapers,  the  Tribune  and  the 
Courier,  of  New  York. 

In  the  minds  of  the  devoted  constituency  of  the  New 
York  Tribune,  the  idea  of  coloi^-planting  as  a  means  of 
improving  the  lot  of  average  humanity  had  taken  deep 
root,  so  that  twenty-five  years  after  Fourier's  dream  had 
ceased  to  flourish  as  a  social  experiment,  a  colony  repre- 
senting its  hopes,  if  not  its  methods,  could  gain  supporters. 

The  new  venture  was  initiated  by  Nathan  Cook  Meeker, 
who  had  succeeded  Solon  Robinson  as  agricultural  editor 
of  the  New  York  Tribune  at  the  close  of  the  war.  In 
1844  Mr.  Meeker  had  been  an  active  participant  in  the 
Trumbull  Phalanx  at  Warren,  Ohio.  This  had  expired 
of  ague,  poverty,  and  dissension,  after  a  fitful  career  of 
about  three  years.  "If  the  place  had  been  healthy/' 
Mr.  Meeker  said  afterwards,  "  we  should  have  held  out 
longer,  and  the  idle  and  improvident  would  have  got 
more  out  of  the  industrious  and  patient ;  but  I  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  we  should  not  have  finally  ex- 
ploded, either  in  some  fight,  or  at  least  in  disgust." 
From  this  experience  he  emerged  disappointed  and  des- 
titute, but  with  valuable  lessons  for  the  future  and  un- 
shaken faith  in  the  utility  of  colonization  effort.  The 
knowledge  thus  dearly  bought  he  was  destined  to  apply, 
many  years  later,  in  a  useful  career  as  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  a  State. 

79 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

In  the  fall  of  1869  Mr.  Meeker  had  returned  from  a 
trip  to  the  Far  West,  the  object  of  which  was  to  describe 
the  Mormon  industrial  system  in  a  series  of  letters  to  the 
Tribune.  Encountering  a  snow  blockade  at  Cheyenne, 
which  compelled  him  to  postpone  his  visit  to  Utah,  he 
had  gone  to  Colorado  instead.  It  was  at  the  time  when 
the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad  was  pushing  across  the  plains 
to  the  budding  village  of  Denver,  transforming  the  wag- 
on-trail into  a  highway  of  civilization.  Everywhere  Mr. 
Meeker  beheld  the  dawn  of  a  new  industrial  life  in  the 
midst  of  a  wilderness.  He  was  charmed  with  the  climate 
and  scenery,  and  impressed  with  the  material  wealth  of 
the  country's  undeveloped  resources.  The  old  enthusi- 
asm for  colony-making  filled  his  imagination.  Wearied 
with  a  life  struggle  to  remodel  old  social  structures,  he 
longed  to  avail  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  build  on 
new  foundations. 

These  hopes  he  communicated  to  his  friend,  John  Rus- 
sell Young,  who  agreed  to  bring  the  matter  to  the  atten- 
tion of  Horace  Greeley.  This  he  did  at  a  dinner  held  at 
Delmonico's  in  December,  1869.  Mr.  Greeley  was  in- 
stantly interested,  and  beckoned  Mr.  Meeker  to  join  him 
at  the  table.  "  I  understand  you  have  a  notion  to  start 
a  colony  to  go  to  Colorado,"  said  the  editor.  "  Well/' 
he  continued,  "I  wish  you  would  take  hold  of  it,  for  I 
think  it  will  be  a  great  success,  and  if  I  could,  I  would 
go  myself."  Thus  assured  of  powerful  backing,  Mr. 
Meeker  at  once  proceeded  to  form  his  plans. 
|  The  prospectus  of  the  new  colony  was  drawn  up  by 
Mr.  Meeker,  but  carefully  weighed  and  revised  by  Mr. 
Greeley.  A  quarter  of  a  century  had  elapsed  since  these 
men  had  been  engaged  —  the  one  as  active  participant, 

80 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

the  other  as  the  most  conspicuous  American  champion — 
in  the  Fourier  scheme  of  association.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  just  how  much  of  the  old  plan  survived  in  the 
new  colony  prospectus,  when  the  thought  of  these  leaders 
had  been  mellowed  and  broadened  by  many  more  years  of 
life  and  experience. 

In  the  Fourier  communities  the  people  had  lived  to- 
gether under  one  roof,  in  the  hope  of  effecting  largo 
household  economies.  There  had  been  common  owner- 
ship of  land,  and  an  attempt  at  equal  division  of  labor. 
The  unit  of  the  community  was  the  whole ;  the  only  in- 
dividual, the  public. 

In  forming  the  plan  of  the  new  colony  the  lessons  of 
experience  were  not  forgotten.  There  was  but  a  single 
suggestion  of  the  "  phalanstery,"  or  common  household 
of  Fourier  days,  and  that  was  advanced  in  timid  terms. 
"It  seems  to  me/'  Mr.  Meeker  wrote,  "that  a  laundry 
and  bakery  might  be  established,  and  the  washing  and 
baking  done  for  all  the  community ;  but  other  household 
work  should  be  done  by  the  families."  It  was  provided 
that  the  unit  of  society  should  be  the  family,  living  under 
its  own  roof ;  that  farms  and  homes  should  be  owned 
independently ;  that  individuals  should  plan  their  own 
labor,  and  rise  or  fall  by  their  industry  and  thrift,  or  lack 
of  them.  The  new  ideal  was  that  of  an  organized  com- 
munity which  should  give  the  people  the  benefit  of  as- 
sociation without  hampering  individual  enterprise  and 
ability.  It  furnished  a  means  of  settlement  essentially 
different  from  that  under  which  the  Middle  West  had 
been  developed. 

Land  was  to  be  purchased  on  a  large  scale  with  a  com- 
mon fund.  This  cheapened  its  cost,  and  gave  the  col- 
F  81 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

onists  an  important  measure  of  control  in  its  sub -di- 
vision and  development.  The  settlement  was  to  be  made 
almost  wholly  in  a  village,  the  land  being  divided  into 
blocks  of  ten  acres,  and  the  blocks  into  eight  lots  for 
building  purposes.  It  was  proposed  to  apportion  each 
family  "from  forty  to  eighty,  even  one  hundred  and  six- 
ty acres,"  adjoining  the  village.  Northampton,  in  Mass- 
achusetts, and  several  other  New  England  towns  and  vil- 
lages, had  been  settled  in  this  manner.  A  feature  of 
much  interest  was  the  proposal  to  have  the  residence  and 
business  lots  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony's  treasury, 
the  capital  so  obtained  to  be  appropriated  for  public  im- 
provements, such  as  building  a  church,  a  town-hall,  and 
a  school -house,  and  establishing  a  public  library.  This 
plan  marked  an  important  departure  in  town-making. 
Town  sites,  as  a  rule,  especially  where  the  community 
promises  a  rapid  growth,  are  treated  as  opportunities  for 
private  speculation.  The  boom  comes,  and  everybody 
prospers ;  the  boom  goes,  and  a  few  schemers  have  man- 
aged to  acquire  nearly  all  the  cash  capital.  Under  the 
new  plan,  as  the  prospectus  pointed  out,  "  the  increased 
value  of  real  estate  will  be  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  peo- 
ple." They  would  receive  these  benefits,  too,  in  the  best 
form,  as  in  the  shape  of  permanent  improvements  essen- 
tial to  their  social  and  intellectual  well-being,  and  of 
capital  available  for  industrial  purposes. 

Other  advantages  of  settling  in  a  village  were  pre- 
sented as  follows  :  "  Easy  access  to  schools  and  public 
places,  meetings,  lectures,  and  the  like.  In  planting,  in 
fruit-growing,  and  improving  homes  generally,  the  skill 
and  experience  of  a  few  will  be  common  to  all,  and 
much  greater  progress  can  be  made  than  where  each  lives 

82 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

isolated.  Refined  society  and  all  the  advantages  of  an 
old  country  will  be  secured  in  a  few  years ;  while,  on  the 
contrary,  where  settlements  are  made  by  old  methods 
people  are  obliged  to  wait  twenty,  forty,  or  more  years/' 

This  prospectus  was  published  in  the  New  York  Trib- 
une of  December  14, 1869.  with  a  hearty  editorial  indorse- 
ment. Spite  of  radical  departures  in  the  matter  of 
private  landholding  and  individual  industry,  the  vital 
spirit  of  Fourierism  lived  and  breathed  through  the  cau- 
tious lines  of  the  announcement.  There  was  still  the 
high  ideal  of  social  and  civic  life,  of  industrial  indepen- 
dence, of  a  scheme  of  labor  which  should  give  to  the  la- 
borer an  equitable  share  of  what  he  produced.  There 
was  still  the  plan  of  co-operation  in  achieving  things  for 
the  common  benefit.  There  was  still  the  craving  for  a 
society  composed  of  sober,  temperate,  industrious  people. 
The  common  household  had  been  discarded  for  the  family 
home  and  hearth-stone,  but  for  the  barbarism  and  isola- 
tion of  life  on  great  farms  there  had  been  substituted  the 
association  of  homes  in  the  village  centre,  with  the  best 
social  and  intellectual  opportunities.  Behind  the  new 
plan,  as  behind  the  old,  stood  the  patient  energy  and  faith 
of  Meeker  and  the  glorious  optimism  of  Greeley. 

The  announcement  had  met  with  a  prompt  and  en- 
thusiastic response  at  the  hands  of  several  hundred  peo- 
ple, who  had  organized  the  Union  Colony  of  Colorado  at 
a  meeting  held  at  the  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York, 
where  Horace  Greeley  had  presided.  A  committee  had 
selected  twelve  thousand  acres  of  railroad  and  govern- 
ment land  in  the  valley  of  the  Cache  la  Poudre,  twenty 
miles  northwest  of  Denver,  on  the  line  of  railway  then 
building  to  Cheyenne.  The  pioneers  of  the  colony  were 

83 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA      . 

thus  able  to  begin  settlement  in  the  spring  of  1870,  and 
to  bring  to  the  test  of  actual  experience  the  social  and 
industrial  plans  set  forth  in  the  prospectus.  A  party  of 
eastern  people,  most  of  whom  came  from  cities,  they  en- 
tered cheerfully  upon  the  task  of  adjusting  a  high  ideal 
to  the  untried  conditions  of  a  country  which  had  previ- 
ously known  only  the  Indian,  the  hunter,  and  the  cow- 
boy. Their  experience  for  the  next  twenty  years  has  a 
larger  significance  than  merely  local  history,  since  the 
community  is  one  of  the  landmarks  in  western  life. 

Mr.  Meeker  having  refused  the  use  of  his  own  name, 
the  new  town  was  christened  "  Greeley,"  and  this  name 
was  popularly  applied  to  the  colony  also,  in  spite  of  its 
incorporated  title.  The  first  severe  test  of  the  co- 
operative principle,  which  had  been  relied  upon  for  the 
larger  enterprises,  arose  in  connection  with  the  building 
of  canals.  There  had  been  no  misconception  as  to  the 
need  of  irrigation,  but  it  was  supposed  that  the  works 
could  be  quickly  constructed  and  the  new  methods  of 
agriculture  readily  learned.  The  original  estimate  of 
cost  was  twenty  thousand  dollars.  The  actual  outlay  be- 
fore the  works  were  completed  reached  four  hundred 
and  twelve  thousand,  or  more  than  twenty  times  the  es- 
timate. For  resources  to  meet  this  unexpected  demand, 
the  colony  had  only  receipts  from  the  sales  of  property 
and  the  subscriptions  and  labor  of  its  members.  The  re- 
sult was  not  reached  without  serious  dissensions  and 
some  desertions,  but  the  works  were  built,  and  the  commu- 
nity survived  with  its  co-operative  principle  intact.  It  is 
not  to  be  believed  that  a  private  enterprise  could  have  lived 
through  a  similar  experience  with  the  same  slender  finan- 
cial resources,  for  it  was  the  public  spirit  and  pride  which 

84 


THE    GREELEY    COLONY    OF    COLORADO 

saved  the  day  at  this  critical  juncture.  These  increased 
as  difficulties  multiplied,  and  rose  with  the  tide  of  out- 
side criticism  and  abuse.  The  process  welded  the  people 
together,  and  made  them  strong  enough  to  meet  success- 
fully the  obstacles  which  yet  remained. 

Having  provided  water  for  their  lands,  the  settlers  pro- 
ceeded to  create  the  irrigation  industry  of  Colorado  ;  for 
nothing  worthy  of  the  name  existed  on  the  scattered 
ranches  of  the  sparsely  settled  Territory.  The  new- 
comers brought  their  intelligence  to  bear  upon  the  prob- 
lem of  perfecting  skilful  methods  of  irrigation  and  culti- 
vation, and  of  discovering  the  classes  of  crops  best 
adapted  to  the  soil  and  climate.  This  work  quickly  led 
them  to  realize  another  disappointment  of  serious  import. 
They  had  dreamed  of  orchards  and  vineyards,  and  of 
homes  set  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  flowers  and  delicate 
shrubbery.  Experiment  soon  taught  them  that  they  had 
been  deceived  about  the  character  of  the  country.  The 
hopes  which  had  been  built  upon  the  fruit  industry  failed 
utterly,  and  the  colonists  were  compelled  to  fall  back 
upon  general  farming.  This  involved  somewhat  larger 
farms,  and  rendered  more  difficult  the  realization  of  their 
social  plans.  Very  likely  it  saved  them  from  the  evils 
of  the  single  crop  which  has  marred  the  prosperity  of 
many  agricultural  districts.  The  diversified  products  of 
the  soil  yielded  them  a  comfortable  living.  Since  there 
was  no  hope  of  obtaining  cash  income  from  fruit,  they 
sought  another  surplus  crop,  and  found  it  in  the  potato, 
to  which  their  soil  proved  to  be  peculiarly  adapted.  They 
made  an  exhaustive  study  of  this  culture,  and  at  last  pro- 
duced in  the  "  Greeley  potato"  one  of  the  famous  crops  of 
the  West.  Its  superiority  readily  commands  the  best  place 

85 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

in  the  market,  and  there  have  been  years  when  the  crop 
has  returned  a  million  dollars  to  the  potato  districts  of 
which  the  colony  is  the  centre.  The  farmers  invented  a 
pool  system  which  frequently  enabled  them  to  control 
the  output,  and  so  influence  prices  in  their  favor. 

Events  proved  that  the  colonists  were  gainers  by  reason 
of  the  trials  and  disappointments  which  attended  the 
establishment  of  their  industrial  life.     Though  the  cost 
of  their  canals  had  so  far  outrun  their  expectations,  they 
obtained  their  water  supply  much  cheaper  than  did  sub- 
sequent communities  who  patronized  private  companies. 
At  Greeley  the  cost  of  a  water-right  for  eighty  acres  was 
three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.     This  made  the  user  a 
proportionate  owner  of  the  works.     Where  canals  wove 
private,  settlers  paid  twelve  hundred  dollars  for  precisely 
the  same  amount  of  water,  while  the  works  remained  the 
property  of  a  foreign  corporation.     The  difference  in  the 
price  of  water  under  the  two  systems  represented  a  very 
handsome  dividend  for  those  who  had  persisted  in  their 
allegiance  to  the  co-operative  principle.     In  the  same 
way,  the  colonists  profited  from  their  struggle  to  realize 
the  best  agricultural  methods.     They  won  a  reputation 
for  their  products  which  possessed  actual  commercial 
value,  and  they  became  the  teachers  of  irrigation,  furnish- 
ing practical  examples  to  students  of  the  subject  and 
contributing  largely  to  its  literature.     These  results  must 
be  credited  to  the  fact  that  the  community  was  organized, 
and  that  the  people  acted  with  a  common  impulse. 

Passing  now  from  the  industrial  to  the  civic  side  of  the 
colony  life,  we  find  that  the  high  public  spirit  in  which 
the  community  was  conceived  left  its  marks  not  less  in- 
delibly. In  the  original  prospectus  Mr.  Meeker  had 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

plainly  stated,  "  The  persons  with  whom  I  would  be  will- 
ing to  associate  must  be  temperance  men  and  ambitious 
to  establish  good  society."  This  was  no  sounding  phrase, 
for  the  founder  and  his  fellow-colonists  wrote  their  prin- 
ciples into  the  title  deeds  which  transferred  farm  and 
village  property  from  the  company  to  individuals.  These 
provided  that  if  intoxicating  liquor  were  ever  manufact- 
ured or  sold  on  the  land,  title  should  immediately  revert 
to  the  colony.  The  provision  was  enforced  with  splendid 
intolerance.  Those  who  were  not  in  accord  with  its  spirit 
had  not  been  invited  to  come,  nor  were  they  made  com- 
fortable while  they  stayed.  Their  unbending  attitude  on 
this  subject  gave  the  men  of  Greeley  the  title  of  "Puri- 
tans/' which  was  a  unique  distinction  in  the  Far  West, 
in  that  day  of  cowboys  and  border  ruffians.  The  prohi- 
bition clause  in  the  deeds  was  stoutly  resisted  by  a  small 
minority,  and  went  from  court  to  court,  until  it  was 
finally  vindicated  by  the  supreme  tribunal  at  Washington. 
The  Greeley  local  sentiment  has  always  upheld  the  princi- 
ple, and  insisted  that  it  was  responsible  for  the  admitted- 
ly high  character  of  the  community.  Like  several  of  the 
colony's  plans,  it  has  been  extensively  imitated. 

The  government  of  the  community  was  vested  in  exe- 
cutive officers,  but  was  actually  ruled  by  public  opinion. 
This  found  expression  in  numerous  town  meetings  held 
in  Colony  Hall,  which  was  one  of  the  earliest  buildings 
erected.  Here  all  the  public  affairs  were  discussed  with 
perfect  frankness  to  the  last  detail,  and  no  public  officer 
ventured  to  stray  far  from  the  conclusions  there  pro- 
nounced. 

Not  even  the  early  hardships  and  disappointments 
were  permitted  to  mar  the  social  life  of  the  colony.  The 

87 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

people  made  the  most  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  the 
association  of  homes  in  the  village,  and  organized  a 
variety  of  social  and  intellectual  diversions.  At  an  early 
period  an  irreverent  newspaper  writer  remarked:  "The 
town  of  Greeley  is  a  delectable  arena,  for  of  the  entire 
population  three-fourths  are  members  of  clubs  that  are 
eternally  in  session.  Day  may  sink  into  night,  flowers 
may  bloom  and  fade,  and  the  seasons  roll  round  with  the 
year,  but  Greeley  clubs  are  unchangeable."  In  one  of 
the  letters  by  which  Mr.  Meeker  kept  the  readers  of  the 
New  York  Tribune  informed  of  the  progress  of  the  com- 
munity, he  spoke  of  these  "overflowing  meetings,"  and 
said :  "  In  all  our  experience  we  have  never  seen  such  in- 
stitutions so  well  sustained  ;  and  if  we  wanted  to  show 
strangers  the  best  that  is  to  be  seen  of  Greeley  we  would 
have  them  visit  the  Lyceum." 

David  Boyd,  who  was  both  a  prominent  actor  in  these 
scenes  and  the  historian  of  the  colony,  writes  of  the  same 
subject,  and  throws  a  suggestive  side-light  on  a  notable 
trait  of  western  life  when  he  says:  "In  coming  to  a 
country  which  offered  so  many  new  questions  for  solution 
and  presented  so  many  new  aspects  of  life,  the  minds  even  of 
those  past  their  prime  experienced  a  sort  of  rejuvenation. 
Iking  nearly  all  strangers  to  one  another,  each  was  ambi- 
tious to  begin  his  new  record  as  well  as  possible,  and  so 
put  the  best  foot  foremost."  Hero  is  the  explanation  of 
much  of  the  superior  energy  which  marks  the  life  of  new 
communities,  and  here  lies  the  hope  of  social  progress 
through  colonization.  The  individuality  all  but  obliter- 
ated in  the  great  city  springs  anew  and  develops  into 
blossom  and  fruitage  in  the  fresh  soil  of  colonial  life.  In- 
stitutions which  would  be  quite  impracticable  in  old  and 

88 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

crowded  centres  get  a  footing  in  new  countries,  where 
men  may  exert  untrammcled  energies,  and  move  freely 
in  that  atmosphere  of  social  equality  which  is  certain  to 
characterize  new  communities  and  likely  to  endure  while 
they  continue  small. 

In  considering  the  net  results  of  Greeley  Colony,  it  is 
important  to  note  first  that  it  has  been  thoroughly  suc- 
cessful. In  this  respect  it  presents  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  Fourier  experiment,  from  which  it  may  be  said  to 
have  descended.  Each  man  prospered  according  to  his 
merit,  and  what  the  community  undertook  to  do  by 
means  of  co-operation  it  accomplished.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  the  latter  principle  was  applied  extensively.  The 
capital  realized  from  the  sale  of  property  was  so  largely 
absorbed  in  the  construction  of  canals  as  to  leave  little 
surplus  for  other  industrial  and  commercial  enterprises. 
If  one-half  of  this  capital  had  been  available  for  stores, 
banks,  and  small  industries,  it  is  likely  that  much  which 
was  necessarily  left  to  private  initiative  would  have  been 
undertaken  by  the  colony.  In  that  case  we  should  find 
broader  lessons  in  co-operative  effort  than  we  do  now.  It 
it  is  also  important  to  note  that  the  community  owed  its 
prosperity  to  its  high  ideal  and  uncompromising  public 
spirit.  There  was  here  no  common  religious  tie  as  in  the 
early  New  England  colonies  ;  no  shadow  of  persecution 
such  as  that  which  bound  the  Mormon  pioneers  together 
in  an  indissoluble  brotherhood.  The  nearest  approach 
to  this  influence  was  the  prohibition  sentiment,  and  this 
formed  but  a  small  part  of  the  original  plan.  These  colo- 
nists were  earnest  men  and  women  who  had  gone  forth 
to  make  homes  where  they  could  combine  industrial  in- 
dependence with  social  equality  and  intellectual  oppor- 

80 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

trinity.  They  were  grimly  determined  to  accomplish 
what  they  had  undertaken.  This  spirit,  and  this  alone, 
kept  them  from  going  to  pieces  during  the  first  five  years, 
and  laid  the  foundation  for  their  permanent  prosperity. 

Both  Colorado  and  the  arid  West  owe  much  to  the  ex- 
ample of  Greeley.  It  lent  an  impulse  to  the  develop- 
ment of  their  civic  character,  and  made  a  deep  and  last- 
ing impression  upon  their  agricultural  industry.  The 
influence  of  the  community  on  its  immediate  surround- 
ings is  yet  more  plainly  visible.  Its  success  resulted  in 
largo  irrigation  developments  and  numerous  settlements 
in  Colorado,  Wyoming,  and  western  Nebraska.  A  com- 
munity without  a  pauper  or  a  millionaire,  Greeley  has 
yet  had  a  surplus  both  of  men  and  of  capital  to  con- 
tribute to  the  making  of  new  districts.  The  colony  of 
to-day  is  a  well-built  town  of  comfortable  homes  and 
substantial  business  blocks,  surrounded  by  well -culti- 
vated farms  connected  by  a  comprehensive  canal  system, 
which  is  the  property  of  the  land-owners.  Although  in 
periods  of  general  business  depression  it  has  felt  the 
heavy  hand  of  hard  times,  few  communities  in  the  world 
possess  a  better  assurance  of  a  comfortable  living  in  the 
future,  while  none  has  better  educational  and  social  ad- 
vantages. 

Horace  Greeley  followed  the  colony's  development 
with  the  closest  interest,  writing  frequent  letters  of  ad- 
vice, and  even  finding  time  to  pay  a  hurried  visit.  His 
Jast  letter  to  Mr.  Meeker,  written  six  days  before  his 
death,  was  as  follows  : 

"  FRIEND  MEEKER, — I  presume  you  have  already  drawn  on  me 
for  the  one  thousand  dollars  to  buy  land.  If  you  have  not,  please 
do  so  at  once.  I  have  not  much  money,  and  probably  never  shall 

90 


THE  GREELEY  COLONY  OF  COLORADO 

have,  but  I  believe  in  Union  Colony  and  you,  and  consider  this  a 
good  investment  for  my  children." 

To  N.  C.  Meeker  Mr.  Greeley's  death  was,  indeed,  ca- 
lamitous. Depriving  him  of  necessary  income  from  news- 
paper sources,  as  well  as  of  financial  backing  in  the  col- 
ony operations,  it  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  seek 
employment  in  the  public  service,  and  this  was  directly 
responsible  for  his  death.  He  was  massacred  by  the 
Indians  while  serving  as  agent  on  the  White  River 
reservation.  His  work  for  the  colony  had  been  entirely 
unselfish,  and  his  name  deserves  high  rank  among  the 
founders  of  western  civilization. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  EVOLUTION  OP  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

THE  most  valuable  lessons  in  all  the  romantic  history 
of  California  may  be  found  in  a  trivial  corner  of  the 
great  commonwealth.  Upon  a  clear  day  the  eye  may 
readily  scan  its  entire  length  from  the  San  Tirnoteo 
hills  to  the  shining  sea.  Between  its  parallel  mountain 
ranges  the  width  of  the  district  seems  but  two  or  three 
miles,  though  in  reality  it  is  from  ten  to  twenty  miles. 
Ignoring  the  nomenclature  of  local  districts,  this  is  the 
San  Bernardino  Valley.  It  is  upon  this  narrow  terri- 
tory that  to  a  great  degree  the  fame  of  California  climate 
and  productions  rests.  Here  institutions  have  been 
created  in  the  last  thirty  years  which  are  destined  to  ex- 
ert a  powerful  influence  upon  the  future  of  the  AVest. 

What  Holland  was  to  the  life  of  Europe  in  the  four- 
teenth, fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries,  southern  Cal- 
ifornia is  to  the  life  of  the  Pacific  coast  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  industrial  impulse  which  the 
men  of  the  Netherlands  caught  from  their  conquest  of  the 
sea,  the  men  of  the  southern  valleys  caught  from  their  con- 
quest of  the  desert.  "  Curbing  the  ocean  and  overflowing 
rivers  with  their  dikes,"  says  one  of  the  closest  students  of 
Dutch  history,  "  they  came  to  love  the  soil,  their  own  cre- 
ation, and  to  till  it  with  patient,  almost  tender  care."  So 

92 


EVOLUTION  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

they  became  the  fathers  of  scientific  farming  in  Europe. 
They  wrought  a  marvellous  revolution  in  the  methods 
of  cultivating  the  soil.  "  When  Catherine  of  Aragon 
wished  for  a  salad  she  was  compelled  to  send  for  it 
across  the  Cliannel  by  a  special  messenger."  The  civ- 
ilization founded  upon  this  wonderful  agriculture  main- 
tained its  high  character  through  the  whole  range  of 
their  economic  life.  The  habits  of  skilful  industry 
which  grew  from  the  intensely  cultivated  soil  conferred 
the  same  prosperity  when  adapted  to  the  workshop  and 
the  store.  The  thread  of  co-operation  spun  from  their 
common  labor  on  the  dikes  ran  through  the  entire  in- 
dustrial fabric  of  the  crowded  little  nation.  The  influ- 
ence of  neighborly  association  involved  in  the  conditions 
of  existence  on  farms  of  petty  size  colored  and  shaped 
their  social  life.  As  it  was  in  Holland,  so  it  is  in  south- 
ern California. 

The  men  of  the  southern  valleys  made  the  small-farm 
unit  supreme.  With  marvellous  patience  and  intelli- 
gence they  worked  out  the  highest  methods  of  watering 
and  tilling  the  soil  known  to  the  world.  Tempering 
their  speculative  instincts  with  love  of  home,  they  de- 
veloped towns  and  surroundings  of  rare  beauty  and  com- 
fort, and  made  them  centres  of  high  social  and  intellect- 
ual life.  To  compare  these  conditions  with  those  which 
prevail  in  the  great  wheat-  and  cattle-ranches  of  the 
North,  where  labor  is  mostly  servile,  and  where  beauty 
has  never  laid  its  hand  upon  the  home  or  dooryard,  is 
like  comparing  Holland  to  Paraguay.  Although  the 
South  has  by  no  means  escaped  the  evils  of  the  single 
crop,  it  has  vindicated  irrigation  and  the  small  farm,  and 
the  extraordinary  social  possibilities  inherent  in  both. 

93 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

These  are  the  valuable  lessons  which  may  be  set  against 
the  failures  and  disappointments  of  the  last  two  dec- 
ades. 

In  the  stormy  and  heroic  days  of  the  gold  epoch,  of  the 
Bear  Flag,  of  the  American  conquest,  and  of  the  vigi- 
lance committees,  southern  California  played  a  small 
part.  Its  past  is  the  dreamy  memory  of  old  mission 
days,  of  peaceful  shepherds,  of  great  haciendas,  of  a  land 
dominated  by  Spanish  folk  and  speech.  The  land  was  a 
desert  of  sage-brush  and  cactus,  in  which  a  few  scattered 
mission  gardens  made  charming  oases.  Along  moist 
river-bottoms  there  were  sometimes  fields  and  gardens, 
though  not  of  the  highest  type.  On  the  uplands  light 
crops  of  wheat  and  barley  were  occasionally  harvested,  if 
spring  rains  happened  to  be  fairly  generous.  But  it  was, 
apparently,  a  country  which  offered  nothing  to  the 
stranger  save  climate  and  scenery.  To  this  barren  place 
came  irrigation  and  the  Anglo-Saxon,  bringing  a  new 
era  in  their  train. 

The  evolution  of  southern  California  may  be  studied 
in  the  experience  of  two  representative  colonies.  These 
are  Anaheim  and  Riverside.  Both  were  undertaken  by 
comparatively  poor  men,  and  made  important  contribu- 
tions to  the  permanent  prosperity  of  the  district  in  which 
they  settled.  The  success  which  they  achieved  and  the 
methods  by  which  they  accomplished  it  colored  and 
shaped  the  larger  institutions  which  grew  from  these 
pioneer  plantings.  Anaheim  owes  its  historical  impor- 
tance to  the  fact  that  it  was  the  mother  colony,  but  it 
gains  added  interest  as  an  example  of  the  way  in  which 
a  number  of  petty  capitalists  may  combine  their  means 
in  large  enterprises.  It  is  useful,  too,  as  showing  the 

94 


EVOLUTION  OF  SOUTHERN   CALIFORNIA 

outcome  of  the  settlement  of  city  workingmen  on  agri- 
cultural lands.  Riverside  represents  a  higher  degree  of 
social  conditions,  and  is  especially  important  and  inter- 
esting as  an  example  of  the  influence  exerted  by  an  en- 
tirely new  element  of  population  upon  a  country  which 
had  been  neither  developed  nor  appreciated  by  its  natives 
and  early  settlers.  A  brief  glance  at  the  beginnings  of 
these  two  communities  is  essential  to  any  just  compre- 
hension of  the  condition  and  tendencies  of  the  southern 
California  of  to-day. 

Anaheim  was  projected  forty  years  ago  by  a  party  of 
Germans  in  San  Francisco.  They  were  all  mechanics 
and  small  tradesmen,  and  each  was  possessed  of  a  modest 
amount  of  savings.  It  was  proposed  that  this  capital 
should  be  united  in  a  common  fund  and  used  for  the 
purchase  and  improvement  of  a  large  tract  of  land.  For 
this  purpose  a  colony  association  was  formed,  the  mem- 
bers paying  one  hundred  dollars  each  and  agreeing  to 
make  further  contributions  in  monthly  instalments.  A 
committee  was  sent  out  to  discover  a  good  location  and 
contract  for  its  purchase.  A  body  of  land  near  the  Santa 
Ana  river,  twenty-five  miles  southeast  of  Los  Angeles, 
was  chosen.  A  part  of  the  colony  was  then  detailed  to 
build  an  irrigation  canal,  divide  the  land  into  twenty- 
acre  farms,  with  a  central  village,  and  plant  the  whole 
tract  in  orchards  and  vineyards.  In  the  mean  time  the 
main  body  of  the  association  remained  in  San  Francisco, 
earning  money  and  sustaining  the  work  in  the  field. 
When  the  colony  had  thus  been  completely  prepared  for 
occupancy,  the  settlers  came  with  their  families,  build- 
ing their  houses  in  the  village  and  assigning  the  farms 
to  individuals  by  drawing  lots.  In  order  to  make  this  di- 

95 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

vision  equitable,  those  who  obtained  the  choicest  property 
paid  a  premium,  which  was  divided  among  those  to  whom 
the  poorer  places  had  fallen.  Most  of  the  colonists  devoted 
themselves  exclusively  to  agriculture,  but  enough  opened 
small  shops  and  worked  at  their  trades  as  blacksmiths, 
carpenters,  painters,  shoemakers,  and  tailors,  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  community.  With  the  division  of  the 
land  the  association  settled  its  accounts,  and  only  the  ir- 
rigation canal  remained  public  property.  Co-operation 
had  served  an  excellent  purpose,  however,  in  enabling 
the  people  to  obtain  their  land  at  first  cost,  and  to  have 
it  improved  skilfully  and  economically  in  advance  of 
their  coming. 

Beyond  the  hope  of  dwelling  beneath  their  own  roofs 
and  working  for  themselves,  the  founders  of  Anaheim 
had  brought  no  special  ideal  to  the  southern  valley. 
They  were  people  of  common  tastes,  well  content  with 
simple  prosperity  and  comfort.  The  community  was 
thoroughly  successful.  It  is  also  possible  to  record  an 
almost  uniform  story  of  individual  ease  of  life  for  the 
settlers.  While  a  few  became  discouraged  and  sold  out 
to  their  neighbors,  much  the  greater  number  remained 
and  became  comfortably  well  off,  while  a  few  rose  to 
wealth.  They  had  come  to  the  colony  from  the  employ- 
ments of  city  life,  yet  readily  adapted  themselves  to  the 
work  of  tilling  the  soil  of  their  small  farms.  But  the 
true  importance  of  Anaheim  was  seen  in  the  impulse 
which  it  gave  to  a  new  form  of  development  in  southern 
California.  It  had  been  a  region  of  great  ranches, 
where  live-stock  and  grain  held  almost  complete  sway. 
Anaheim  pointed  the  way  to  the  subdivision  of  large  es- 
tates and  the  intensive  cultivation  of  the  soil  with  the 

96 


EVOLUTION  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

aid  of  irrigation.  This  demonstration  was  destined  to 
work  a  revolution  in  the  character  of  the  people  and 
country. 

The  Riverside  Colony,  perhaps  the  most  widely  cele- 
brated of  any  of  these  communities,  is  a  better  example 
of  the  colonial  life  of  California.  In  a  truer  sense  than 
Anaheim,  it  is  a  product  of  irrigation,  and  it  illustrates 
more  fully  than  the  mother  colony  the  social  possibili- 
ties inherent  in  this  form  of  agriculture.  Its  history 
reveals  a  curious  struggle  between  the  forces  of  co-op- 
eration and  of  private  enterprise,  in  the  course  of  which 
both  lent  much  strength  to  the  colony  and  exerted  a 
marked  influence  upon  its  fortunes.  Like  most  of  the 
pioneer  settlements,  Riverside  was  the  dream  of  com- 
paratively poor  men  who  sought,  in  the  fresh  opportuni- 
ties of  a  new  country,  better  conditions  for  themselves 
and  their  children.  The  enterprise  originated  with 
Judge  North,  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee.  His  prospectus 
was  issued  from  that  place  in  the  spring  of  1870,  and 
evoked  a  large  response  from  many  different  States.  In 
this  prospectus  the  founder  did  not  undertake  to  out- 
line a  social  organization  with  any  detail. 

"Appreciating  the  advantages  of  associative  settle- 
ment," ran  the  circular,  "  we  aim  to  secure  at  least  one 
hundred  good  families  who  can  invest  one  thousand 
dollars  each  in  the  purchase  of  land ;  while  at  the  same 
time  we  invite  all  good,  industrious  people  to  join  us  who 
can,  by  investing  a  smaller  amount,  contribute  in  any 
degree  to  the  general  prosperity."  The  advantage  of 
co-operative  over  individual  settlement  was  rather  for- 
cibly expressed:  "Experience  in  the  West  has  demon- 
strated that  one  hundred  dollars  invested  in  a  colony 
G  97 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

is  worth  one  thousand  dollars  invested  in  an  isolated  lo- 
cality." That  the  projectors  had  formed  a  very  decided 
opinion  as  to  the  most  favorable  location  is  evident  in 
the  following:  "We  do  not  expect  to  buy  as  much  land 
for  the  same  money  in  southern  California  as  we  could 
obtain  in  parts  of  Colorado  or  Wyoming;  but  we  ex- 
pect it  to  be  worth  more  in  proportion  to  cost  than  any 
other  land  we  could  purchase  within  the  United  States. 
It  will  cost  something  more  to  get  to  California  than  it 
would  to  reach  the  States  this  side  of  the  mountains, 
but  we  are  very  confident  that  the  superior  advantages 
of  soil  and  climate  will  compensate  us  many  times  over 
for  this  increased  expense." 

His  circular  had  attracted  the  attention  of  a  few  men 
of  considerable  means,  and  with  these  Judge  North 
set  out  for  California  to  select  the  site  of  the  under- 
taking. With  the  rare  intuition  which  eastern  men 
have  frequently  displayed  in  going  to  the  West,  the  new- 
comers selected  a  location  which  seemed  quite  preposter- 
ous to  the  natives  of  the  country.  Planning  the  most 
ideal  development  which  had  thus  far  been  attempted, 
they  deliberately  bought  lands  which  had  formerly  been  as- 
sessed at  a  valuation  of  seventy-five  cents  an  acre.  These 
lands  then  constituted  a  sheep  pasture  of  inferior  sort. 
They  were  similar  to  the  stretch  of  desert  which  the 
transcontinental  traveller  sees  in  passing  through  Ari- 
zona. After  the  winter  rains  they  bore  a  short-lived 
crop  of  wild  flowers,  but  during  most  of  the  year  they 
offered  nothing  more  attractive  than  sage-brush  and 
mesquite.  The  Mexican  who  owned  them  had  not  suffi- 
cient imagination  to  perceive  how  the  new  proprietors 
could  realize  a  profit  upon  the  modest  sum  of  two  dol- 

98 


EVOLUTION   OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

lars  and  a  half  an  aero,  for  which  he  gladly  sold  them. 
But  Judge  North  and  his  friends  had  two  well-defined 
ideas  in  their  brains.  One  was  irrigation;  the  other, 
oranges.  To  the  natives  the  first  seemed  impracticable,, 
because  of  the  expense;  and  the  other  ridiculous,  be- 
cause no  one  had  ever  raised  oranges  there  upon  a  com- 
mercial scale. 

The  Santa  Ana  river  rises  in  the  Sierra  Madre  moun- 
tains, drawing  its  volume  from  a  multitude  of  springs 
and  canyon  streams.  It  flows  southwesterly  for  a  dis- 
tance of  seventy  miles,  where  it  empties  into  the  ocean. 
Riverside  is  about  twenty  miles  from  the  source  of  the 
stream,  and  lies  on  the  bluffs  along  its  eastern  bank. 
The  conditions  did  not  present  such  opportunities  for 
the  cheap  and  easy  diversion  of  the  waters  as  the  Mor- 
mon pioneers  found  in  Utah.  In  later  years,  as  the  de- 
mand for  irrigation  grew  constantly  larger  and  more 
insistent,  it  became  necessary  to  resort  to  the  very  high- 
est type  of  works  for  the  distribution  of  water,  and  even 
the  earliest  canal  required  a  cash  outlay  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars.  Fortunately  the  capital  was  available,  and 
thus  the  work  of  development  went  forward  without  fal- 
tering. The  original  canal  was  completed  in  the  spring 
of  1871. 

The  enterprise  had  resolved  itself  into  a  private  stock 
company,  owning  both  the  land  and  the  water.  The 
land  was  now  sold  to  the  colonists  for  twenty-five  dollars 
an  acre.  This  included  the  right  to  purchase  a  certain 
amount  of  water,  for  which  there  was  an  extra  charge  in 
the  form  of  an  annual  rental.  At  the  beginning  this 
amounted  to  about  one  dollar  an  acre,  but  it  rose  with 
the  demand  for  water,  and  the  need  of  costly  improve- 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA      , 

ments  in  the  system,  until  it  reached  an  annual  charge 
of  ten  dollars  an  acre. 

In  the  experience  of  Riverside  we  may  see  the  com- 
mercial romance  of  irrigation  in  its  most  striking  form. 
The  original  sheep  pasture,  assessed  at  seventy-five  cents 
an  acre,  sold  readily  at  twenty-five  dollars  an  acre  when 
irrigation  facilities  had  been  supplied.  While  this  re- 
presented a  handsome  profit  to  the  original  investors, 
it  was  extremely  moderate  compared  with  the  returns 
which  the  second  purchasers  realized.  A  few  years 
later  the  unimproved  lands  sold  for  prices  ranging  from 
three  hundred  to  five  hundred  dollars  per  acre.  The 
improved  orange  orchards,  which  had  been  evolved  from 
the  sheep  pasture,  were  valued,  and  actually  sold,  at 
one  thousand  to  two  thousand  dollars  per  acre.  There 
have  been  years  when  the  best  of  them  earned  a  profit  of 
fifty  per  cent,  on  the  higher  figure. 

Riverside  was  destined  to  win  its  chief  celebrity  as  the 
pioneer  orange  colony.  Its  founders  had  based  their 
faith  in  the  possibilities  of  this  industry  on  what  they 
had  seen  in  the  gardens  of  old  missions. 

They  did  not  hesitate  to  plant  their  lands  largely  with 
citrus  fruits  in  the  face  of  many  predictions  of  disaster. 
The  new  culture  prospered  from  the  start,  but  made  se- 
vere demands  upon  the  patience  and  intelligence  of  the 
settlers.  During  the  same  years  in  which  the  Greeley 
colonists  were  working  out,  by  means  of  experiment  and 
painful  experience,  the  solution  of  agricultural  problems 
for  Colorado,  the  Riverside  colonists  were  performing 
precisely  the  same  service  for  southern  California.  The 
skill  and  the  enterprise  which  the  one  people  applied  to 
potatoes,  the  other  applied  to  oranges,  with  the  same 

100 


EVOLUTION   OF   SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

high  results.  The  Riverside  colonists  not  only  exhaust- 
ed their  own  sources  of  information  on  the  subject  of 
citrus  culture,  but  induced  the  State  Department  at 
Washington  to  make  its  consuls  in  semi-tropical  coun- 
tries their  agents.  In  this  way  they  were  enabled  to  learn 
all  that  foreign  horticulturists  knew  about  the  business. 
They  made  constant  progress  in  improving  the  standard 
of  their  fruit,  their  most  marked  triumph  in  this  direction 
being  the  production  of  the  Washington  navel,  or  seedless, 
orange.  Their  orchards  represented  all  the  choicest 
varieties,  which  were  cultivated  with  the  highest  skill. 
The  original  colony  tract  of  two  thousand  acres  has  been 
gradually  extended  until  it  includes  ten  thousand.  The 
shipment  of  oranges  has  risen  to  over  four  thousand  car 
loads  annually,  realizing  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars. 

The  projector  of  Riverside  had  framed  his  prospectus 
on  the  lines  of  co-operative  effort.  We  have  seen  that 
the  enterprise  speedily  became  private  and  speculative  in 
character.  This  result  was  mostly  due  to  the  necessity 
of  using  large  capital  for  the  initial  development,  and  to 
the  fact  that  the  colony  included  a  group  of  individuals 
who  possessed  considerable  means.  Possibly  the  same 
result  might  have  occurred  in  Utah  if  the  Mormon  pio- 
neers had  not  enjoyed  a  fortunate  equality  in  the  matter 
of  poverty.  In  Utah  there  was  no  capital  except  labor 
and  brains,  and  these  admitted  of  no  other  form  of  en- 
terprise than  pure  co-operation. 

The  speculative  instinct  which  took  possession  of  River- 
side and  ran  a  mad  race  through  southern  California,  ac- 
complished much  good,  as  well  as  much  evil.  And  in  the 
end  the  pioneer  orange  colony  returned  very  closely  to 
the  original  ideal  of  its  founder.  The  principal  irriga- 

101 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

tion  system  became  in  time  the  property  of  the  people, 
and  the  water-rights  were  inseparably  associated  with  the 
land.  The  orange-growers  also  found  it  necessary  to  seek 
refuge  from  the  rapacity  of  the  commission  system  in  the 
adoption  of  co-operation  for  the  sale  of  their  product. 
Hence,  in  the  two  most  vital  features  of  their  industry 
— the  watering  of  their  lands  and  the  handling  of  their 
crops  —  Riverside  is  fully  realizing  to-day  the  hopes  in 
which  it  was  originally  conceived.  On  the  side  of  its 
social  life  it  has  never  departed  from  its  first  ideal,  and 
it  is  in  this  aspect  that  it  may  be  studied  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. 

The  homes  and  avenues  of  this  colony,  which  have 
been  evolved  from  an  inferior  sheep  pasture  in  less  than 
a  generation,  are  among  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world. 
In  considering  their  widely  celebrated  charms,  it  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  these  are  the  homes  and  sur- 
roundings of  average  people,  and  that  they  earn  their 
living  by  tilling  the  soil.  Making  due  allowance  for  cli- 
matic differences,  there  are  equally  beautiful  residence 
districts  in  the  suburbs  of  great  eastern  cities ;  but  these 
belong  to  people  who  enjoy  a  degree  of  prosperity  much 
above  the  average — to  the  small  minority  who  are  rich, 
or  at  least  unusually  well-to-do.  They  are  not  farmers, 
but  business  or  professional  men  who  have  risen  above 
the  general  level  of  society.  At  Riverside,  on  the  other 
hand,  at  least  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  total  population 
live  in  homes  which  front  on  beautiful  boulevards,  pre- 
senting to  the  passer  an  almost  unbroken  view  of  well- 
kept  lawns,  opulent  flower-beds,  and  delicate  shrubbery. 
Newspaper  carriers  canter  through  these  streets  deliver- 
ing the  local  morning  and  evening  dailies.  Though  this 

102 


EVOLUTION   OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 

is  a  farming  population,  the  homes  are  so  close  together 
that  the  people  enjoy  the  convenience  of  free  postal  de- 
livery. They  fill  their  bath-tubs  with  water  piped 
through  the  streets.  They  light  their  homes  with  elec- 
tricity. In  the  centre  of  the  colony  they  have  fine  stores, 
churches,  hotels,  and  public  halls.  Their  schools  are  of 
the  highest  standard,  and  are  housed  in  buildings  the 
beauty  and  convenience  of  which  bespeak  the  good  pub- 
lic taste.  A  well-patonized  institution  is  the  club-house 
and  its  reading-room.  There  is  but  a  single  saloon,  and 
it  is  considered  decidedly  disreputable  to  frequent  it. 

The  first  result  of  the  early  colonies  was  to  give  a  tre- 
mendous impetus  to  the  settlement  and  development 
of  southern  California.  The  fruits  of  this  new  impulse 
are  seen  in  the  scores  of  charming  communities  which 
stretch  eastward  to  the  margin  of  the  Colorado  desert 
and  southward  to  the  border  of  Mexico.  Redlands,  On- 
tario, and  Pomona  are  typical  examples.  The  impres- 
sive city  of  Los  Angeles,  which  grows  alike  in  good  times 
and  in  bad,  is  another  product  of  the  movement  which 
traces  back  to  the  humble  beginnings  of  these  pioneer 
settlements  established  by  a  superior  class  of  eastern 
emigrants.  High  land  values  and  costly  irrigation  works 
have  naturally  resulted.  But  these  are  only  the  super- 
ficial evidences  of  economic  forces  which  lie  deeper,  and 
which  should  be  noted  as  the  peculiar  product  of  the 
colonial  life  of  southern  California. 

The  germ  of  Riverside,  and  of  the  civilization  which 
it  inaugurated  in  the  San  Bernardino  Valley,  is  the  small 
farm  made  possible  by  irrigation.  This  is  alone  respon- 
sible for  the  character  of  industrial  and  social  institu- 
tions and  of  the  people  who  sustain  them.  Where  farms 

103 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

are  very  small — in  Riverside  they  are  from  five  to  ten 
acres  in  size — they  necessarily  belong  to  the  many.  This 
means  a  class  of  small  landed  proprietors  at  the  base  of 
society.  The  condition  is  one  which  forbids  the  exist- 
ence of  a  mass  of  servile  labor  like  that  which  lives  upon 
the  cotton  plantations  of  the  South,  and,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent,  upon  large  farms  everywhere,  including  the 
greater  part  of  California  itself.  On  a  small  farm  the 
proprietary  family  does  most  of  the  work.  Hence  the 
main  part  of  the  population  in  such  districts  as  Riverside 
is  independent  and  self-employing. 

The  people  of  southern  California  are  plainly  moving 
along  the  line  which  leads  to  public  ownership  of  public 
utilities  and  co-operative  management  of  commercial 
affairs.  But  with  them  the  movement  is  an  economic 
growth  rather  than  a  political  agitation.  It  is  the  logi- 
cal outcome  of  their  environment  and  necessities.  A 
great  body  of  producers  and  proprietors  of  the  soil,  they 
formerly  stood  between  private  irrigation  systems,  sup- 
plying the  life-current  of  their  fields,  and  private  com- 
mission houses,  furnishing  the  only  outlet  for  their  prod- 
ucts. The  condition  was  an  intolerable  one,  since  it  made 
them  utterly  dependent  upon  agencies  beyond  their  con- 
trol. These  instrumentalities  the  people  are  rapidly 
taking  into  their  own  hands,  and  it  is  inconceivable  that 
they  can  ever  again  pass  into  private  control.  It  is  prob- 
able that  California  has  seen  almost  the  last  of  the  at- 
tempts to  establish  the  policy  of  private  ownership  of  irri- 
gation works,  the  most  vital  of  all  public  utilities  in  arid 
regions.  The  system  of  co-operative  fruit  exchanges  is 
carried  forward  by  the  same  impulse.  Already  it  handles 
more  than  half  the  enormous  product.  The  producors 

104 


EVOLUTION   OF   SOUTHERN   CALIFORNIA 

have  their  own  packing-houses,  make  cash  advances  to 
their  members,  and  send  their  agents  to  represent  them 
in  distant  markets. 

It  is  pleasant  to  note  that  beautiful  homes  and  high 
average  prosperity  have  not  spoiled  the  democratic  sim- 
plicity of  these  communities.  After  the  adjournment  of 
the  International  Irrigation  Congress  at  Los  Angeles  in 
1893,  its  members  enjoyed  the  hospitalities  of  many  of 
the  charming  colonies  in  the  neighborhood.  In  his  re- 
marks at  a  banquet  tendered  the  party  by  the  people  of 
Santa  Ana,  Seflor  de  Ybarrola,  the  representative  of 
Mexico,  paid  a  handsome  compliment  to  the  ladies  who 
had  waited  upon  the  table.  Afterwards  one  of  the  dis- 
tinguished representatives  of  France  remarked  his  sur- 
prise at  hearing  a  public  compliment  to  "the  servants." 

"What!"  exclaimed  Seilor  de  Ybarrola,  "did  you 
think  they  were  servants  ?  Why,  those  were  the  leading 
ladies  of  Santa  Ana." 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  the  French  delegate  de- 
manded, in  amazement,  "  that  the  leading  ladies  of  Santa 
Ana  put  on  aprons  to  serve  strangers  ?" 

"Certainly,"  the  Mexican  replied  ;  "for  in  this  coun- 
try service  is  a  title  to  respect." 

The  incident  illustrates  at  once  the  hospitality  and  the 
equality  which  are  characteristic  of  the  social  life  of 
southern  California. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   REVOLUTION   ON   THE   PLAIN'S 

THE  semi-arid  portion  of  the  Great  Plains  constitutes 
a  distinct  division  of  the  irrigation  empire.  Its  history 
and  its  problems  are  peculiarly  its  own.  During  the  last 
half  century  it  has  lived  through  three  stirring  and  ro- 
mantic epochs  and  entered  upon  a  fourth.  This  last  is 
one  of  absorbing  human  interest,  and  will  doubtless 
shape  the  permanent  civilization  of  the  region. 

When  Francis  Parkman  and  the  Mormon  pioneers  tra- 
versed the  country,  late  in  the  forties,  it  swarmed  with 
herds  of  buffalo  and  tribes  of  hostile  Indians.  It  was  the 
era  of  savagery,  broken  only  by  the  presence  of  a  few 
frontier  posts,  which  served  as  the  occasional  refuge  of 
adventurers  and  hunters. 

Almost  miraculously  the  buffalo  disappeared,  and  the 
red  men  retreated  before  the  white  wave  which  over- 
flowed the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi  and  began 
gradually  to  people  the  eastern  margin  of  the  plains. 
Then  the  savagery  of  the  desert  suddenly  gave  way  to 
the  semi-barbarism  of  an  epoch  of  cattle-kings  and  cow- 
boys. * 

Just  as  the  Indian  and  the  trapper  had  surrendered  to 
the  cowboy  and  his  herds,  so  the  latter  in  their  turn  re- 
ceded and  largely  disappeared  before  another  element 

106 


THE    REVOLUTION    ON    THE    PLAINS 

which  now  swiftly  arose  in  the  life  of  the  Great  Plains. 
The  third  era  of  American  colonization,  noted  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  was  yet  at  the  stage  of  flood-tide.  New 
railroads  were  pushing  their  iron  highways  westward 
across  the  prairie.  Such  entrepots  as  Chicago,  St.  Paul, 
Omaha,  and  Kansas  City  were  crowded  with  hopeful  im- 
migrants whose  appetite  for  government  land  had  been 
whetted  by  the  stories  of  prosperity  with  which  the  news- 
papers teemed.  Horace  Greeley's  famous  injunction, 
"  Go  west,  young  man,"  still  rang  in  the  ears  of  am- 
bitious youth  and  homeless  middle-age.  Land  agents 
urged  on  the  multitudes  with  a  zeal  born  of  the  com- 
missions on  which  it  fed. 

In  the  enthusiasm  of  the  hour  no  one  gave  heed  to  the 
few  croakers  who  hinted  that  there  was  somewhere  a 
mysterious  boundary-line  beyond  which  all  efforts  at  set- 
tlement must  be  disastrous.  There  was  a  theory  that 
rainfall  moved  westward  with  population,  and  that  the 
cultivation  of  the  land  wrought  changes  in  climatic  con- 
ditions. Under  these  circumstances  it  was  not  strange 
that  the  home-seeking  hosts  crossed  the  unknown  boun- 
dary into  the  region  of  scant  rainfall,  and  learned  in  hard- 
ship and  bitterness  the  lessons  which  a  more  cautious  and 
far-seeing  government  would  have  comprehended  and 
taught  to  its  children. 

In  the  absence  of  such  scientific  determination  of  the 
conditions  of  the  country,  tens  of  thousands  expended  all 
their  money  and  the  most  precious  years  of  their  lives 
in  discovering  what  could  not  be  done  in  the  semi-arid 
region.  The  crushing  and  pathetic  truth  that  nature 
had  denied  sufficient  rainfall  for  the  production  of  crops 
in  a  region  where  a  multitude  of  people  had  made  their 

107 


TEE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

homes  dawned  slowly  npon  the  public  mind,  and  the  con- 
clusion was  stubbornly  resisted. 

Between  the  acknowledgment  of  this  fact  and  the  be- 
ginning of  practical  efforts  looking  to  the  use  of  irri- 
gation, there  was  a  brief  but  exciting  intermediate  stage 
in  which  high  hopes  were  built  upon  the  possibility  of 
precipitating  rain  by  artificial  means.  An  Australian 
genius  suddenly  appeared  with  a  mysterious  prescription 
warranted  to  assemble  clouds  in  a  clear  sky  and  compel 
them  to  weep  in  the  shape  of  copious  showers.  The  end 
of  this  undertaking  was  the  failure  of  the  experiment 
and  the  suicide  of  the  inventor.  One  of  the  railways  dis- 
covered another  wizard  with  another  prescription,  and 
hauled  his  special  car  over  the  entire  length  of  its  line, 
promising  showers  on  regular  schedule  time*  Even  the 
Agricultural  Department  at  Washington  expended  several 
thousand  dollars  in  experiments  in  this  direction.  In 
this  case,  however,  there  was  no  mystery  about  the  method 
adopted.  It  was  the  use  of  powerful  explosives  to  be 
discharged  at  a  high  elevation.  As  nobody  denied  that 
heavy  showers  frequently  followed  great  battles,  and  that 
it  generally  rained  on  the  night  of  the  Fourth  of  July, 
there  were  high  hopes  for  the  success  of  this  undertaking, 
which  occurred  on  an  elaborate  scale  in  Texas.  Secre- 
tary Rusk  described  the  preparations  in  detail,  and  sum- 
marized the  outcome  in  the  sententious  remark:  "The 
result  was — a  loud  noise!"  The  theory  exploded  with 
the  dynamite  and  disappeared  from  the  minds  of  men 
with  the  last  reverberation  on  the  Texas  prairies. 

The  mysterious  line  which  divides  the  region  of  fairly 
reliable  rainfall  from  the  land  of  sunshine  has  been  dis- 
covered at  last  and  generally  accepted.  This,  as  stated 

108 


THE    REVOLUTION    ON    THE    PLAINS 

before,  is  the  ninety-seventh  meridian  west  from  Green- 
wich. It  divides  the  United  States  almost  exactly  into 
halves,  running  through  the  middle  of  North  Dakota, 
South  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Indian  Territory,  mid 
Texas.  The  vast  territory  lying  between  this  meridian 
and  the  foothills  of  the  Rockies,  bounded  on  the  north 
by  Canada  and  on  the  south  by  Mexico,  is  the  semi-arid 
region  of  the  Great  Plains.  Over  all  this  vast  district 
the  tide  of  settlement  had  flowed  and  ebbed  again,  as  we 
have  seen.  It  now  awaits  the  full  development  of  the 
fourth  epoch  in  its  eventful  and  romantic  history.  The 
character  and  extent  of  this  development  is  governed  by 
the  nature  of  the  water  supply,  which  differs  materially 
in  the  several  States. 

The  utility  of  irrigation  on  the  plains  was  revealed  in 
a  curious  way.  In  Finney  county,  near  the  western  bor- 
der of  Kansas,  thousands  of  acres  were  planted  to  wheat 
in  the  summer  of  1878,  and  it  seemed  the  sanest  of  proj- 
ects to  build  a  grisfe-mill  to  grind  the  crop.  This  was 
undertaken  near  the  Arkansas  river  by  enterprising 
merchants  in  the  neighboring  community  of  Garden 
City,  but  the  new  institution  began  and  ended  with  a 
mill-race.  Before  the  building  and  machinery  were  re- 
quired, the  wheat  had  surrendered  to  dry  air  and  hot 
winds.  Not  an  acre  of  the  crop  was  harvested.  And 
yet  the  blighted  seed  was  destined  to  bear  another  and 
far  more  fateful  crop  and  the  forgotten  mill-race  on  the 
banks  of  the  Arkansas  to  grind  a  grist  that  would  prove 
historic. 

A  few  settlers  remained  to  rake  amid  the  ashes  of 
their  ruined  hopes.  Among  them  was  a  man  who  had 
learned  the  methods  of  irrigation  while  living  in  Call- 

109 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

fornia  and  Colorado.  It  happened  that  his  land  ad- 
joined the  abandoned  mill-race,  and  he  readily  obtained 
the  right  to  turn  the  water  upon  a  part  of  his  farm. 
The  result,  though  not  surprising  to  the  practised  irri- 
gator,  was  a  revelation  to  his  thoroughly  disheartened 
neighbors.  The  soil  which  produced  nothing  in  the 
previous  summer  responded  to  the  new  method  of  culti- 
vation with  enormous  crops  of  all  varieties  of  products. 
In  quality  they  surpassed  anything  previously  grown  in 
that  region.  As  these  facts  became  known  a  new  hope 
arose,  like  a  star  in  the  night,  against  the  dark  back- 
ground of  past  discouragements.  The  Garden  City 
"  experiment "  became  the  Mecca  of  students  of  irrigation 
throughout  the  wide  region  devastated  by  the  drought. 
The  ruined  crop  of  the  previous  year  and  the  useless 
mill-race  gave  birth  to  an  influence  which  in  fifteen 
years  has  assumed  far-reaching  proportions. 

Kansas  is  the  mother  of  irrigation  on  the  plains.  When 
the  people  heard  of  the  miracle  wrought  by  the  waters 
of  the  abandoned  mill-race  their  optimism  instantly  fore- 
told a  better  civilization  than  they  had  dreamed  of. 
Irrigation  began  here  with  canal-building  in  the  valley 
of  the  Arkansas  river.  For  a  time  the  work  was  prose- 
cuted with  remarkable  vigor.  As  early  as  1890  over 
four  hundred  miles  of  large  canals  had  been  built,  at  a 
cost  of  nearly  three  million  dollars.  But  the  industry 
came  suddenly  face  to  face  with  an  unexpected  and 
almost  fatal  obstacle. 

The  Arkansas  river  rises  in  the  mountains  of  Colo- 
rado and  waters  a  broad  and  fertile  valley  before  cross- 
ing the  boundary  into  Kansas.  In  the  upper  State 
enterprise  was  busy  with  the  diversion  of  its  waters. 

110 


THE    REVOLUTION    ON    THE    PLAINS 

In  the  absence  of  any  regulation  of  interstate  streams 
by  national  authority,  the  Colorado  irrigators  claimed 
the  right  to  take  the  last  drop  of  water  for  their  own 
canals.  This  they  proceeded  to  do  during  the  growing 
season,  leaving  the  canals  of  western  Kansas  as  dry  as 
its  prairies.  The  investment  of  an  English  company  in 
extensive  works  costing  more  than  a  million  dollars  was 
practically  destroyed  by  this  turn  of  affairs.  There  were 
many  similar  losses  of  less  magnitude.  It  was  at  this 
stage  that  the  lamented  humorist  "Bill  Nye"  remarked 
of  some  of  the  western  rivers  that  "they  are  a  mile  wide 
and  an  inch  thick — they  have  a  large  circulation,  but 
very  little  influence." 

When  the  Kansas  irrigators  found  themselves  deprived 
of  their  surface  supplies  they  sought  the  underflow,  and 
in  the  process  of  finding  and  utilizing  it  developed  an 
entirely  unique  and  very  promising  mode  of  irrigation. 

The  new  experiment  was  first  made  at  Garden  City, 
within  sight  of  the  historic  mill-race.  It  was  found  that 
in  the  Arkansas  Valley  water  could  be  obtained  by  shal- 
low wells  ranging  in  depth  from  eight  to  twenty  feet. 
This  is  raised  by  hundreds  of  wind-mills  into  hundreds 
of  small  reservoirs  constructed  at  the  highest  point  of 
each  farm.  The  uniform  eastward  slope  of  the  plains  is 
seven  feet  to  the  mile.  The  indefatigable  Kansas  wind 
keeps  the  mills  in  active  operation,  and  the  reservoirs 
are  always  full  of  water,  which  is  drawn  off  as  it  is  re- 
quired for  purposes  of  irrigation.  These  small  indi- 
vidual pumping-plants  have  certain  advantages  over  the 
canal  systems  which  prevail  elsewhere.  The  irrigator 
has  no  entangling  alliances  with  companies  or  co-oper- 
ative associations,  and  is  able  to  manage  the  water  supply 

111 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

without  deferring  to  the  convenience  of  others,  or  yield- 
ing obedience  to  rules  and  regulations  essential  to  the 
orderly  administration  of  systems  which  supply  large 
numbers  of  consumers.  The  original  cost  of  such  a 
plant,  exclusive  of  the  farmer's  own  labor  in  construct- 
ing his  reservoirs  and  ditches,  is  two  hundred  dollars, 
and  the  plant  suffices  for  ten  acres.  The  farmer  thus 
pays  twenty  dollars  per  acre  (about  double  the  average 
price  paid  to  canal  systems  in  this  region)  for  a  per- 
petual guaranty  of  sufficient  "rain"  to  produce  bounti- 
ful crops  ;  but  to  this  cost  must  be  added  two  dollars  per 
acre  as  the  annual  price  of  maintaining  the  system. 

Farming  under  these  conditions  is  limited  to  small 
areas,  and  intensive  methods  of  cultivation  become  im- 
perative. The  result  has  been  the  evolution  of  a  multi- 
tude of  five-,  ten-,  and  twenty-acre  farms,  each  sur- 
rounded by  its  tall  fringe  of  protecting  cottonwoods, 
which  inclose  grounds  variously  planted  to  orchard, 
field,  and  garden.  Perhaps  these  methods  present  a 
closer  parallel  to  European  agriculture  than  anything 
else  found  in  this  country,  while  the  numerous  wind- 
mills suggest  comparison  with  Holland.  Nowhere  are 
there  sharper  contrasts  than  that  which  is  presented  by 
these  green  and  fruitful  farms,  gleaming  like  islands  of 
verdure  upon  the  brown  bosom  of  the  far-stretching 
plains,  which  have  been  seared  by  the  hot  breath  of  rain- 
less winds. 

The  uses  of  the  artificial  reservoirs  are  not  limited  to 
irrigation;  they  are  usually  stocked  with  fish,  which 
multiply  with  surprising  rapidity  and  enable  the  farmer 
to  include  this  item  of  home  produce  in  his  bill  of  faro 
every  day  in  the  year.  These  fish  are  very  tame,  and  in 

112 


THE  REVOLUTION  ON  THE  PLAINS 

some  cases  actually  trained  to  respond  to  the  ringing 
of  the  dinner-bell,  coming  in  scurrying  shoals  to  fight 
for  crumbs  of  bread  thrown  upon  the  water.  (This  fish 
story  is  a  true  one.)  The  reservoirs  also  yield  a  profit- 
able crop  of  ice  in  the  winter.  When  we  compare  the 
hardships  and  bitterness  of  this  locality  but  a  few  years 
since  with  the  comfort  and  abundance  which  the  infin- 
itely smaller  farms  yield  to-day,  we  behold  anew  the  civ- 
ilizing power  of  irrigation.  The  Starvation  Belt  has  be- 
come a  Land  of  Plenty. 

The  centre  and  inspiration  of  these  developments  is 
Garden  City,  capital  of  Finney  county.  What  Greeley 
was  to  Colorado  and  Riverside  to  southern  California, 
this  little  town  has  been  to  western  Kansas.  Perhaps 
no  other  small  place  on  the  plains  suffered  a  more  vio- 
lent attack  of  "boom"  than  Garden  City  in  the  feverish 
times  of  the  last  decade.  Certainly  none  has  held  with 
more  tenacity  to  its  confidence  in  the  final  outcome  of 
the  country  or  contributed  more  to  the  early  vindica- 
tion of  its  faith. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  reasonable  possibilities 
of  windmill  irrigation  in  Kansas.  There  are  enthusiasts 
who  insist  that  the  industry  will  be  extended  to  nearly 
every  acre,  uplands  as  well  as  valleys.  There  are  pessi- 
mists who  assert  that  the  amount  of  land  reclaimable  by 
such  means  is  relatively  very  small.  Of  this  subject  the 
conservative  hydrographer  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  Mr.  Frederick  Haynes  Newell,  speaks  as 
follows : 

"The  existence  of  the  subsurface  waters  of  the  river 
valleys  of  western  Kansas  has  long  been  known.  Like 
every  other  natural  resource,  its  importance,  at  one  time 
H  113 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

little  recognized,  has  been  seized  upon  by  the  so-called 
"boomers"  and  exaggerated  to  the  extent  of  creating 
distrust  and  depreciation.  It  is,  however,  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  natural  advantages  of  the  State, 
and  one  upon  which  the  foundations  of  prosperity  must 
be  carefully  laid.  By  a  thorough  employment  of  the 
underground  waters,  with  the  best  methods,  much  of 
the  vacant  land  of  the  State  will  be  utilized  for  agricult- 
ui'e,  and  the  remainder  can  become  a  source  of  revenue, 
indirectly  at  least.  Taking  the  Arkansas  Valley  as  best 
illustrating  these  conditions,  the  general  statement  may 
be  made  that  water  can  be  had  everywhere  within  the 
valley  at  moderate  depths,  and  in  quantities  such  as  to 
be  inexhaustible  to  ordinary  pumping  machinery  if  prop- 
erly installed." 

Referring  to  the  very  much  larger  territory  lying  out- 
side of  the  river  valleys,  the  same  authority  says: 

"In  the  portions  of  western  and  central  Kansas  where 
wells  cannot  be  obtained  at  moderate  depth,  it  will  prob- 
ably be  practicable  to  store  considerable  volumes  of  water 
by  closing  the  outlets  of  natural  depressions.  Favorable 
localities,  although  somewhat  rare,  can  be  found  in  nearly 
every  county,  and  by  the  proper  construction  of  substan- 
tial earth-dams  considerable  volumes  of  water  can  be 
held  for  use  upon  the  lower  lands.  In  one  instance  at 
least  water  thus  stored  has  been  pumped  for  use  upon 
an  orchard,  and  the  success  attained  in  this  way  should 
induce  others  to  try  similar  devices." 

The  drought  of  1890  made  Nebraska  one  of  the  im- 
portant irrigation  States  of  the  West.  Canals  had  been 
built  on  the  North  Platte  river  near  the  Wyoming 
boundary,  several  years  earlier,  but  the  irrigation  indus- 

111 


THE  REVOLUTION  ON  THE  PLAINS 

try  had  won  no  general  recognition.  Thousands  of 
farmers  were  persisting  in  the  delusive  hope  of  rainfall 
farming,  and  public  sentiment  was  distinctly  opposed  to 
those  who  sought  to  include  Nebraska  in  the  arid  re- 
gion. 

All  this  was  changed  by  the  events  of  1890.  In  that 
year  crops  were  ruined  by  dry  weather  and  hot  winds 
throughout  a  large  part  of  the  State,  and  the  people  in 
the  western  counties  generally  acknowledged  that  it  was 
useless  to  longer  persist  in  the  effort  to  cultivate  the 
soil  without  artificial  moisture.  Strangely  enough,  they 
seemed  to  draw  a  new  inspiration  from  their  blighted 
fields.  Irrigation  conventions  were  held  at  many  county 
seats.  The  study  of  water  resources,  of  methods  and 
laws  essential  to  their  utilization,  became  earnest  and 
general.  The  popular  agitation  rapidly  crystallized  into 
a  permanent  and  organized  movement  which  has  gath- 
ered strength  with  each  passing  year.  Comprehensive 
laws  were  enacted  by  the  legislature  and  the  office  of 
State  Engineer  created.  Meanwhile,  large  amounts  of 
private  capital  were  invested,  many  canals  constructed, 
and  the  despised  western  counties  began  to  rise  in  pub- 
lic esteem. 

It  is  now  clearly  apparent  that  the  very  lands  which 
refused  to  yield  a  return  for  the  industry  of  the  first  set- 
tlers will  sustain  the  densest  population  in  the  future 
and  give  the  most  absolute  assurance  of  permanent  pros- 
perity. Already  the  time  has  come  when  a  State  irriga- 
tion fair  can  be  held  in  western  Nebraska  and  make  a 
striking  exhibition  of  results,  and  when  a  commonwealth 
which  ten  years  ago  resented  as  a  libel  the  intimation 
that  its  rainfall  was  deficient,  can  proudly  claim  to  rank 

115 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

among  the  greatest  of  irrigation  States.  The  transforma- 
tion which  has  occurred  in  public  opinion  is  no  less 
striking  than  that  of  the  agricultural  industry  itself. 

The  State  is  more  fortunate  than  some  of  its  neighbors 
in  the  character  and  extent  of  its  water  supplies.  Over 
its  western  boundary  the  North  Platte  pours  a  perennial 
stream  of  considerable  volume,  which  feeds  a  number  of 
large  canals.  The  surface  flow  of  the  South  Platte 
is  mostly  absorbed  in  Colorado,  but  when  the  two  forks 
are  united  in  Lincoln  county  they  make  a  river  of  re- 
spectable proportions,  which  flows  through  the  heart  of 
the  State  and  furnishes  water  both  from  its  surface  flow 
and  from  its  gravel  bed.  The  Loup  river  further  increases 
the  irrigation  facilities  in  the  central  counties.  In  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  State  the  Republican  and  its 
tributaries  supply  a  number  of  quite  extensive  irrigation 
systems.  Along  the  northwestern  boundary  the  Niobra- 
ra,  a  noble  stream,  is  beginning  to  be  utilized. 

The  conformation  of  the  land  in  western  Nebraska 
also  offers  more  favorable  opportunities  for  the  storage 
of  flood  waters  than  are  found  in  most  of  the  prairie 
States.  The  possibility  of  irrigation  from  wells  by  means 
of  pumps  driven  by  windmills  and  by  steam  and  gaso- 
line engines,  are  also  being  thoroughly  tested,  with  hope- 
ful results.  The  experts  of  the  Geological  Survey  report 
that  even  away  from  the  river  valleys,  where  the  depth 
to  water  is  considerable,  small  farms  can  be  irrigated  by 
this  means  at  most  points.  This  conservative  authority  es- 
timates that  fully  one  million  and  a  half  of  acres  can  be 
irrigated  in  western  Nebraska.  Local  enthusiasts  put 
the  amount  very  much  higher,  but  even  the  former  fig- 
ure represents  a  reclaimed  area  three  times  greater  than 

116 


THE    REVOLUTION    ON    THE    PLAINS 

that  on  which  the  wonderful  agricultural  industry  of 
Utah  has  been  developed. 

The  Dakotas  are  comparatively  well  watered  by  surface 
streams,  but  they  flow  in  deep  channels,  and  the  uniform 
slope  of  the  land  to  the  eastward  is  only  about  one  foot 
to  the  mile.  Under  these  conditions  it  is  not  practicable 
to  divert  the  flow  by  gravity  canals,  though  it  is  some- 
times done  with  the  aid  of  pumping  machinery.  But 
the  Dakotas  rejoice  in  the  possession  of  great  artesian 
basins  and  of  some  of  the  largest  flowing  wells  in  the 
world.  Many  of  them  are  one  thousand  feet  in  depth, 
and  some  of  them  furnish  the  remarkable  flow  of  four 
thousand  gallons  per  minute.  Over  sixteen  hundred 
artesian  wells  were  reported  in  these  two  States  as  early 
as  1891,  and  the  number  has  constantly  increased.  The 
irrigation  sentiment  has  been  well  organized  and  has  re- 
sulted in  the  provision  of  progressive  legislation. 

Texas  was  also  a  severe  sufferer  from  drought  through- 
out the  western  part  of  its  vast  territory.  The  greater 
portion  of  it  is  well  watered  by  rivers,  by  large  perennial 
springs,  and  by  artesian  wells  second  only  to  those  of 
Dakota.  Here  the  people  have  also  responded  with  high 
public  spirit  to  the  appeals  of  the  irrigation  champions, 
and  the  new  era  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  State  is  well 
under  way. 

The  actual  amount  of  land  that  may  be  reclaimed  and 
cultivated  in  the  semi-arid  region  furnishes  no  measure 
of  the  value  of  irrigation  to  this  vast  district.  By  en- 
abling thousands  to  engage  in  farming,  irrigation  has 
made  it  possible  to  use  the  surrounding  plains  as  thet 
pasture  for  great  numbers  of  beef  cattle.  In  many  in- 
stances small  herds  are  owned  by  the  farmers  themselves, 

117 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

but  to  a  large  extent  their  crops  are  bought  by  those 
whose  sole  business  is  cattle-raising.  Thus  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  region  are  brought  into  use,  and  a  wonder- 
ful prosperity  has  followed  as  the  logical  result. 

From  Canada  to  Mexico  the  revolution  on  the  Great 
Plains  is  now  in  full  tide.  It  is  the  most  dramatic  page 
in  the  history  of  American  irrigation.  It  has  saved  an 
enormous  district  from  lapsing  into  a  condition  of  semi- 
barbarism.  It  has  not  only  made  human  life  secure,  but 
revolutionized  the  industrial  and  social  economy  of  the 
locality. 

To  a  considerable  extent  it  has  replaced  the  quarter- 
section  with  the  small  farm  and  the  single  crop  with 
diversified  cultivation.  It  has  transformed  the  specu- 
lative instincts  of  the  people  into  a  spirit  of  sober  in- 
dustrialism. It  has  raised  the  standard  of  living  and 
improved  the  character  of  homes.  It  has  planted  the 
rose-bush  and  the  pansies  where  only  the  sunflower  cast 
its  shadows,  and  it  has  twined  the  ivy  and  the  honeysuckle 
over  doors  which  formerly  knew  not  the  touch  of  beauty. 
It  has  made  neighbors  and  society  where  once  there  were 
loneliness  and  heart-hunger.  It  has  broken  the  chains 
of  hopeless  mortgages  and  crowned  industry  with  inde- 
pendence. 


fcact  CbfrD 

UNDEVELOPED   AMERICA 

"  Mighty  as  has  been  our  past,  our  resources  have  just  been  touched 
upon,  and  there  is  wealth  beyond  the  Mississippi  which,  in  the  not 
distant  future,  will  astonish  even  the  dwellers  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

1 '  From  the  time  my  eyes  first  rested  on  the  great  uncultivated 
plains  which  lie  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  Ocean,  my 
wakening  dreams  have  been  filled  with  visions  of  the  incalculable 
wealth  which  the  touch  of  living  water  will  bring  to  life  from  those 
voiceless  deserts.  There  wealth  only  can  produce  wealth,  and  man, 
singly  and  alone,  might  as  well  try  to  subdue  the  Himalayas  as  to 
cope  with  these  wastes  ;  but  the  hand  of  united  and  associated  man 
is  already  reaching  forth  to  grasp  the  great  results. 

"  The  same  power  which  wastes  millions  on  the  Mississippi  can 
be  utilized  to  make  the  desert  blossom  with  the  homes  of  men,  for 
whom  and  for  all  of  us  the  now  blighted  soil  will  bring  forth  the 
fruits  of  the  Garden  of  Eden." — HON.  THOMAS  B.  REED,  in  a 
speech  at  Pittsburg,  1894. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TRUTH   ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

CALIFORNIA  is  widely  celebrated,  but  little  known.  Its 
unique  climate  and  productions,  and  the  dramatic  inci- 
dents of  its  early  history,  have  been  deeply  impressed 
upon  the  popular  imagination  wherever  the  name  of  the 
Eepublic  is  spoken.  These  circumstances  have  given  it 
rank  among  the  most  famous  of  American  States ;  yet  its 
problems  and  its  future  are  inscrutable  enigmas  to  all 
who  have  not  studied  the  subject  at  close  range,  and  to 
many  who  have.  The  anomaly  that  one  of  the  States 
most  talked  of  should  be  one  of  the  least  understood  is 
not  difficult  to  explain. 

In  the  first  place,  California  is  known  not  by  what 
millions  of  people  have  seen,  but  by  what  millions  have 
read.  Europe  is  better  known  by  contact  to  Americans 
than  California.  A  prominent  American  orator  recently 
"  discovered  "  California,  and  filled  the  newspapers  with 
the  interesting  and  suggestive  impressions  it  had  made 
upon  his  mind.  He  had  been  to  Europe  twenty  times,  and 
to  the  Pacific  coast  once,  which  is  once  of  tener  than  many 
other  distinguished  travellers  of  the  eastern  seaboard. 

Still  further,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  dealing  with  new 
conditions  in  California.  Coming  from  dense  forests, 
from  a  land  of  heavy  rainfall,  and  from  a  temperate 

121 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

climate  where  winters  are  long  and  stern,  it  settled  in 
treeless  deserts,  in  a  land  of  slight  and  peculiar  rainfall, 
and  tinder  a  sky  that  never  knows  the  winter. 

Finally,  California  is  in  its  infancy,  having  recently 
celebrated  its  forty-sixth  birthday  as  an  American  com- 
monwealth. Born  in  a  paroxysm  of  speculation — one  of 
the  wildest  the  world  has  seen  —  it  has  outlived  a  trying 
experience  of  lesser  economic  epilepsy,  and  come  to  the 
threshold  of  its  true  career  strengthened  and  purified  by 
the  extraordinary  process.  In  less  than  half  a  century 
several  far-reaching  changes  have  swept  through  the  in- 
dustrial and  social  life  of  the  State,  swiftly  altering  the 
conditions  of  labor  and  of  business.  Even  for  those 
living  in  the  midst  of  these  events  it  has  been  difficult 
to  read  their  significance  and  estimate  their  influence  on 
the  ultimate  character  of  the  place  and  people. 

What  wonder,  then,  that  to  the  outside  world  Cali- 
fornia has  meantime  appeared  like  a  jumble  of  gold, 
palms,  and  oranges,  of  gilded  millionaires  and  hopeless 
paupers,  of  enviable  farmers  living  luxuriously  on  small 
sections  of  paradise,  and  of  servile  alien  laborers  herded 
in  stifling  tenements  ?  Such  are  the  conflicting  aspects 
of  the  Golden  State  to  those  who  view  it  from  afar.  What 
are  the  facts  ? 

The  literature  of  California  is  prolific.  Perhaps  no 
other  locality  in  the  United  States  has  been  so  often  writ- 
ten about.  In  dealing  with  a  place  which  presents  so 
many  strange  and  fascinating  features  it  is  easy  for  praise 
to  become  extravagance.  This  is  now  so  well  understood 
that  it  is  commonly  thought  that  the  words  "  Cali- 
f  ornian  "  and  "  veracity"  are  seldom  synonymous.  But 
the  truth  is  that  visitors  from  abroad  have  contributed 

122 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

rather  more  than  Californians  themselves  to  the  popular 
impression  of  the  State  and  its  wonders.  It  is  the  ileet- 
ing  tourist  rather  than  the  permanent  resident  who  be- 
comes the  more  reckless  partisan  of  the  charming  climate, 
the  majestic  scenery,  and  the  vast  resources  which,  to 
his  exhilarated  imagination,  seem  certain  to  burst  into 
their  full  potentiality  in  the  immediate  future. 

Without  doubt,  the  most  influential  books  ever  written 
about  California  were  those  of  Mr.  Charles  Nordhoff. 
His  California:  for  Healthy  Pleasure,  and  Residence 
(1873),  and  Northern  California  (1874),  had  a  great 
vogue  at  the  time  of  their  publication,  and  for  many  years 
after.  They  are  as  fresh  and  readable  to-day  as  when 
written,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  they  should 
have  exercised  so  powerful  an  influence  in  making  public 
opinion.  Mr.  Nordhoff  should  not  be  confounded  with 
the  superficial  enthusiasts  who  study  the  country  only 
from  car-windows  and  the  verandas  of  luxurious  hotels. 
Addressing  his  books  "  to  travellers  and  settlers,"  he  evi- 
dently realized  the  grave  responsibility  of  the  undertak- 
ing, and  made  a  conscientious  effort  to  describe  the 
situation  faithfully  and  conservatively.  To  keen  observa- 
tion, and  a  clear,  vivid,  descriptive  style,  he  added  a 
shrewd  common-sense,  which  enabled  him  to  divine,  with 
striking  accuracy,  several  important  economic  facts 
which  the  residents  themselves  overlooked  or  ignored. 
He  went  thoroughly  over  and  into  the  country,  accepting 
no  facts  at  second-hand  which  it  was  possible  for  him  to 
verify  by  personal  investigation. 

Nevertheless,  he  wrote  as  a  tourist-correspondent,  and 
is  first  among  those  of  that  class  who  havo  given  Cali- 
fornia the  place  it  holds  in  the  popular  imagination. 

123 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Looking  back  now  to  his  studies  and  the  deductions  he 
drew  from  them,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  conditions 
have  changed  in  twenty-five  years,  and  to  what  extent 
his  words  of  advice  require  revision  before  they  can  be 
offered  to  the  settler  of  to-day. 

When  Mr.  Nordhoff  wrote  his  books  cattle  and  cattle- 
men were  just  beginning  sullenly  to  recede  before  the 
rising  tide  of  agriculturists  in  the  great  San  Joaquin 
Valley.  He  correctly  foretold  the  first  effects  of  the  in- 
dustrial revolution  that  would  follow,  predicting  that  the 
railroad  and  the  public  lands,  and,  later,  the  old  Spanish 
grants,  would  be  divided  among  farmers ,  that  the  cattle 
would  be  compelled  to  seek  the  mountains  for  free  range, 
and  would  come  into  the  valleys  only  to  be  fattened  upon 
alfalfa  and  other  crops.  But  he  foresaw  only  the  first 
effects  of  these  changes,  and  the  farmer  who  should  pro- 
ceed upon  his  advice  to-day  would  certainly  fail  to  prosper. 

Mr.  Nordhoff  championed  the  cause  of  the  small  far- 
mer against  the  great  landowner,  but  his  idea  of  a  small 
farmer  is  widely  different  from  the  present  significance  of 
the  term.  He  saw  in  the  San  Joaquin  "  cheap  farms  for 
millions."  These  were  to  be  acquired,  either  from  the 
railroad  or  the  government,  in  tracts  ranging  from  one 
hundred  and  sixty  to  six  hundred  and  forty  acres.  This 
was  what  he  meant  by  "  small  farms,"  and  they  were 
small,  indeed,  compared  with  the  great  ranches  of  thou- 
sands or  tens  of  thousands  of  acres.  But  they  were 
still  of  quite  imperial  dimensions  compared  with  the 
unit  of  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  acres  which  is  now  consid- 
ered amply  sufficient  for  the  settler's  needs. 

While  Mr.  Nordhoff  recognized  the  advantage  of  irri- 
gation, he  did  not  appreciate  its  actual  importance,  nor 

124 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

did  he  realize  how  largely  it  would  increase  the  cost  of 
land  and  how  seriously  it  would  influence  the  entire 
economic  character  of  the  country.  lie  held  out  the 
hope  of  a  prosperous  living  for  families  of  small  means 
who  should  settle  upon  farms  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  and  upwards  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  and  de- 
pend chiefly  upon  crops  that  could  be  grown  without 
irrigation.  If  "  the  millions"  had  accepted  this  advice 
in  the  past,  or  should  do  so  to-day,  nothing  but  disaster 
could  result.  Except  in  a  few  localities,  prosperous 
agriculture  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  without  irriga- 
tion is  impossible.  The  character  of  the  country  is  such 
that  large  and  costly  canal  systems  are  required  to  bring 
any  considerable  portion  of  it  under  water.  When  these 
were  built  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  acquire  cheap 
land,  and  the  size  of  the  practicable  farm  unit  had  been 
reduced  to  about  one-tenth  of  the  amount  Mr.  Nord- 
hoff  advised.  These  developments  changed  the  situa- 
tion completely. 

The  enthusiastic  author  was  by  no  means  blind  to  the 
possibilities  of  horticulture,  nor  did  he  fail  to  foresee 
that  when  this  had  been  established  it  could  be  success- 
fully pursued  on  much  smaller  areas.  But  here  also  his 
advice  is  now  quite  obsolete,  and  must  be  revised  before 
it  can  again  be  offered  to  the  public.  He  left  the  im- 
pression that  oranges  could  be  grown  throughout  south- 
ern California  and  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.  Later  ex- 
perience has  eliminated  the  dream  of  orange  orchards 
from  a  vast  portion  of  these  localities,  but  has  demon- 
strated that  the  industry  is  practicable  in  some  places 
where  it  was  formerly  supposed  to  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. While  the  orange- tree  will  grow  and  generally 

125 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Looking  back  now  to  his  studies  and  the  ded actions  he 
drew  from  them,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  conditions 
have  changed  in  twenty-five  years,  and  to  what  extent 
his  words  of  advice  require  revision  before  they  can  be 
offered  to  the  settler  of  to-day. 

When  Mr.  Nordhoff  wrote  his  books  cattle  and  cattle- 
men were  just  beginning  sullenly  to  recede  before  the 
rising  tide  of  agriculturists  in  the  great  San  Joaquin 
Valley.  He  correctly  foretold  the  first  effects  of  the  in- 
dustrial revolution  that  would  follow,  predicting  that  the 
railroad  and  the  public  lands,  and,  later,  the  old  Spanish 
grants,  would  be  divided  among  farmers ;  that  the  cattle 
would  be  compelled  to  seek  the  mountains  for  free  range, 
and  would  come  into  the  valleys  only  to  be  fattened  upon 
alfalfa  and  other  crops.  But  he  foresaw  only  the  first 
effects  of  these  changes,  and  the  farmer  who  should  pro- 
ceed upon  his  advice  to-day  would  certainly  fail  to  prosper. 

Mr.  Nordhoff  championed  the  cause  of  the  small  far- 
mer against  the  great  landowner,  but  his  idea  of  a  small 
farmer  is  widely  different  from  the  present  significance  of 
the  term.  He  saw  in  the  San  Joaquin  "  cheap  farms  for 
millions."  These  were  to  be  acquired,  either  from  the 
railroad  or  the  government,  in  tracts  ranging  from  one 
hundred  and  sixty  to  six  hundred  and  forty  acres.  This 
was  what  he  meant  by  "small  farms,"  and  they  were 
small,  indeed,  compared  with  the  great  ranches  of  thou- 
sands or  tens  of  thousands  of  acres.  But  they  were 
still  of  quite  imperial  dimensions  compared  with  the 
unit  of  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  acres  which  is  now  consid- 
ered amply  sufficient  for  the  settler's  needs. 

While  Mr.  Nordhoff  recognized  the  advantage  of  irri- 
gation, he  did  not  appreciate  its  actual  importance,  nor 

124 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

did  ho  realize  how  largely  it  would  increase  the  cost  of 
land  and  how  seriously  it  would  influence  the  entire 
economic  character  of  the  country.  He  held  out  the 
hope  of  a  prosperous  living  for  families  of  small  means 
who  should  settle  upon  farms  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  and  upwards  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  and  de- 
pend chiefly  upon  crops  that  could  be  grown  without 
irrigation.  If  "  the  millions"  had  accepted  this  advice 
in  the  past,  or  should  do  so  to-day,  nothing  but  disaster 
could  result.  Except  in  a  few  localities,  prosperous 
agriculture  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  without  irriga- 
tion is  impossible.  The  character  of  the  country  is  such 
that  large  and  costly  canal  systems  are  required  to  bring 
any  considerable  portion  of  it  under  water.  When  these 
were  built  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  acquire  cheap 
land,  and  the  size  of  the  practicable  farm  unit  had  been 
reduced  to  about  one-tenth  of  the  amount  Mr.  Nord- 
hof!  advised.  These  developments  changed  the  situa- 
tion completely. 

The  enthusiastic  author  was  by  no  means  blind  to  the 
possibilities  of  horticulture,  nor  did  he  fail  to  foresee 
that  when  this  had  been  established  it  could  be  success- 
fully pursued  on  much  smaller  areas.  But  here  also  his 
advice  is  now  quite  obsolete,  and  must  be  revised  before 
it  can  again  be  offered  to  the  public.  He  left  the  im- 
pression that  oranges  could  be  grown  throughout  south- 
ern California  and  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.  Later  ex- 
perience has  eliminated  the  dream  of  orange  orchards 
from  a  vast  portion  of  these  localities,  but  has  demon- 
strated that  the  industry  is  practicable  in  some  places 
where  it  was  formerly  supposed  to  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. While  the  orange- tree  will  grow  and  generally 

125 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

bear  fruit  throughout  the  lower  valleys,  the  area  in 
which  it  can  successfully  be  cultivated  for  commercial 
purposes  is  rather  severely  restricted.  To  grow  a  few 
orange-trees  within  the  shelter  of  the  house,  and  to  pro- 
duce sufficient  fruit  for  home  purposes,  is  one  thing ; 
to  grow  thousands  of  acres  of  oranges  fit  for  the  market, 
and  thus  develop  a  genuine  citrus  district,  is  entirely 
different.  There  is  a  well-recognized  thermal  belt  in 
the  foothills  of  the  Sierras,  bordering  the  San  Joaquin 
and  Sacramento  valleys,  but  the  conditions  of  the  coun- 
try as  a  whole,  with  reference  to  this  subject,  have 
turned  out  to  be  very  different  from  what  they  were 
supposed  to  be  when  Mr.  JSTordhoff  wrote  his  books.  In 
southern  California  his  predictions  in  regard  to  orange 
culture  have  been  largely  realized,  but  even  there  it  has 
been  discovered  that  the  field  is  limited. 

The  author  was  not  unnaturally  led  into  the  error 
of  saying  that  "  the  seasons  are  a  little  later  in  the 
North"  than  in  the  South.  The  contrary  is  the  case, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  for  it  is  the  northern  fruit  dis- 
tricts which  send  the  earliest  products  to  market.  This 
is  true  of  both  deciduous  and  citrus  fruits.  In  the  case 
of  the  latter  the  difference  is  very  striking,  as  the 
northern  oranges  are  ready  for  the  Thanksgiving  mar- 
ket, while  comparatively  little  of  the  southern  crop  is 
available  for  Christmas  purposes.  Both  the  raisin  uml 
the  prune  industries  were  beginning  to  assume  import- 
ance in  1873.  Mr.  Nordhoff  quoted  raisins  at  "  two  dol- 
lars per  box  of  twenty-five  pounds,"  and  added  :  "  I  judge 
from  the  testimony  of  different  persons  that  at  seven 
cents  per  pound  raisins  will  pay  the  farmer  very  well." 
To-day  they  are  quite  content  to  obtain  three  cents.  1 1" 

126 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

quoted  prunes  as  bringing  from  twenty  to  twenty-two 
cents  at  wholesale  at  San  Francisco,  "and  even  as  high  as 
thirty  cents  for  best  quality."  Prunes  now  bring  from 
three  to  eight  cents,  and  pay  well  at  four  and  a  half. 
Figs  were  then  selling  at  from  five  to  ten  cents  per  pound, 
and  the  author  thought  they  would  be  .very  profitable. 
The  result  has  proved  that  while  figs  bear  most  prolific 
crops  they  are  not  profitable,  as  Calif ornians  have  not 
yet  been  able  to  cure  and  pack  them  successfully.  There 
are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  but  this  is  true  as  a  general 
statement,  and  the  fig  is  not  a  profitable  article  of  com- 
merce in  California.  In  much  the  same  way  tobacco- 
culture  failed  and  disappointed  the  hopes  which  had 
been  built  upon  that  industry. 

These  are  instances  of  many  particulars  in  which  even 
the  most  painstaking  of  works  on  California  require  re- 
vision in  the  light  of  experience.  So,  too,  the  public 
opinion  which  they  helped  to  make  must  be  revised. 
Mr.  Nordhoff  described  California  as  it  looked  and  as 
it  seemed  to  promise  in  1873.  While  his  methods  were 
conscientious,  his  tone  was  one  of  intense  enthusiasm. 
His  vision  extended  as  far  as  any  one's  could  do  at  that 
time.  The  fact  is  that  at  that  stage  of  its  history  Cali- 
fornia had  not  begun  to  develop  its  real  and  enduring 
economic  traits  as  it  has  done  during  the  past  few  years. 
It  had  recently  emerged  from  an  era  of  wild  speculation. 
It  stood  upon  the  verge  of  another,  in  which  railroads 
and  agriculture,  rather  than  gold,  were  to  be  the  prin- 
cipal factors.  It  is  from  the  calm  sea-level  of  these  quiet 
days  that  the  State  may  best  take  its  bearings.  Thus  the 
time  is  ripe  for  a  new  study  of  what  in  many  respects  is 
the  most  wonderful  of  American  States. 

127 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

crop,  expanding  their  living  expenses,  and  running  into 
debt.  When  this  spirit  becomes  the  breath  of  industry 
no  human  laws  can  avert  disaster. 

A  true  industrial  system  is  like  a  noble  river  fed  by 
eternal  snows :  it  never  floods  its  banks  with  an  exces- 
sive flow,  and  never  sinks  below  its  normal  stage.  It 
ebbs  and  flows  with  the  regular  tides  of  the  great  com- 
mercial ocean  to  which  it  is  tributary,  but  alike  at  high 
water  and  at  low,  it  bears  the  ships  of  men  upon  its  tran- 
quil bosom. 

After  a  very  intimate  acquaintance  with  California 
horticulture,  and  with  the  army  of  producers  who  have 
engaged  in  it,  Mr.  Edward  F.  Adams,  formerly  mana- 
ger of  the  State  Fruit  Exchange,  wrote  as  follows  : 

"Unless  certain  reforms  in  the  trade  can  be  effected, 
there  is  danger  that  a  large  portion  of  the  capital  will  be 
lost.  The  mortgage  indebtedness  is  very  serious  ;  the 
general  depression  in  values  has  temporarily  wiped  out 
the  equities  of  the  nominal  owners  ;  and  while  a  partial 
recovery  is  doubtless  to  be  expected  in  due  time,  it  is 
not  believed  by  the  best  informed  that  under  present 
conditions  of  marketing,  our  orchards  and  vineyards 
can  continue  to  maintain  those  who  occupy  them  in  their 
present  standard  of  comfort.  We  are  endeavoring  by  a 
general  popular  movement  to  remove  the  evils  which  op- 
press us." 

Notwithstanding  such  warnings  as  this,  and  the  sore 
experience  on  which  they  are  based,  there  are  real-estate 
interests  which  still  advertise  the  fabulous  profits  of 
California  fruit-culture,  and  there  are  many  who  believe 
them  and  proceed  to  organize  their  farms  in  the  old 
way. 

130 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

The  evolutionary  process  of  the  last  twenty  years  has 
wrought  out  some  very  valuable  lessons  for  the  future  of 
California.  It  has  demonstrated  that  irrigation  is  es- 
sential to  the  highest  standard  of  civilization.  The  cen- 
sus of  1890  revealed  the  fact  that  two-thirds  of  the  gain 
in  rural  population  stood  to  the  credit  of  eight  counties 
where  irrigation  prevailed.  The  counties  which  rely 
upon  rainfall  had  about  reached  a  stand-still  or  scored  a 
loss.  The  people  have  always  been  divided  on  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  irrigation  is  necessary.  Those  who 
oppose  urge  that  it  breeds  malaria  and  injures  the  qual- 
ity of  the  fruit.  Those  who  favor  insist  that  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  most  scientific  agriculture,  and  to  the  main- 
tenance of  dense  population.  The  last  twenty  years 
have  answered  the  question  forever.  The  answer  con- 
sists of  a  comparison  between  the  South  and  the  North. 
The  one  was  born  of  the  irrigation  canal ;  the  other  of 
the  mining-camp  and  the  wheat-ranch.  The  one  is  char- 
acterized by  a  high  civilization ;  the  other  by  a  low  one. 

With  a  population  estimated  by  Governor  Budd,  in 
1896,  at  less  than  one  million  and  a  quarter,  California 
has  a  territory  nearly  as  large  as  that  of  France.  It  is 
inferior  to  France  neither  in  climate,  soil,  natural  re- 
sources, nor  sea-coast,  and  its  capacity  for  sustaining  a 
dense  population  is  fully  as  great  as  that  of  the  Eu- 
ropean republic.  The  latter  supports  more  than  thirty- 
eight  millions.  If,  then,  the  comparatively  few  inhabi- 
tants of  the  California  of  to  -  day  are  not  equally 
prosperous,  it  is  because  they  have  failed  to  make  the 
best  use  of  their  opportunities.  With  the  same  rate  of 
increase  in  the  next  century  as  in  that  of  the  immediate 
past,  the  United  States  will  contain  in  1996  a  total  pop- 

131 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

illation  of  over  five  hundred  and  eighty  millions.  Noth- 
ing is  more  certain  than  that  California  must  receive  its 
full  share  of  these  future  millions.  It  seems  hardly  less 
certain  that  they  will  realize  there  the  highest  destiny 
of  the  race.  But  how? 

Notwithstanding  the  supreme  attractions  of  its  rural 
life,  more  than  seventy-seven  per  cent,  of  California's 
total  increase  in  the  last  decade  covered  by  the  national 
census  settled  in  towns  and  cities.  As  a  result,  the  ur- 
ban life  of  this  far,  new  State  is  as  badly  congested  as 
that  of  the  old  communities  of  the  East.  But  the  pos- 
sibilities of  agriculture,  of  manufacture,  and  of  mining 
are  relatively  untouched.  Ultimate  California  remains 
to  be  fashioned  from  these  undeveloped  materials.  The 
tendencies  of  future  growth  are  revealed  by  the  teaching 
of  the  past,  and  not  less  by  its  failures  than  by  its  suc- 
cesses— not  less  by  the  fury  of  old  speculations  than  by 
the  calm  current  of  these  saner  times. 

The  future  tides  of  population  in  the  Golden  State 
must  first  spend  their  energy  upon  the  soil.  It  is  the 
creation  of  a  new  and  ampler  civilization  that  is  involved, 
and  agriculture  must  be  its  foundation.  But  if  those 
now  engaged  in  cultivating  the  soil  can  scarcely  main- 
tain themselves,  what  hope  is  there  for  new  recruits  in 
the  industry?  The  question  is  natural,  but  the  answer 
is  conclusive.  There  is  no  hope  for  them  if  they  engage 
in  speculation,  but  there  is  an  absolute  guaranty  of  a 
living  and  a  competence,  to  be  enjoyed  under  the  most 
satisfying  and  ennobling  social  conditions,  if  they  work 
upon  sound  industrial  lines.  These  lines  are  clearly  dis- 
closed by  the  light  of  past  experience. 

Three  classes  of  products  should  enter  into  the  cal- 

102 


THE    TRUTH    ABOUT    CALIFORNIA 

dilations  of  the  new  settler  in  California:  the  things  he 
consumes  ;  the  things  California  now  imports  from  east- 
ern States  and  foreign  countries  ;  the  things  which  east- 
ern communities  consume,  but  can  never  hope  to  pro- 
duce, and  of  which  California  possesses  virtually  a 
monopoly.  In  the  first  list  is  almost  everything  which 
would  appear  in  an  elaborate  dinner  menu,  from  the 
course  of  olives  to  the  course  of  oranges,  nuts,  and 
raisins,  and  excluding  only  the  coffee.  This  policy  of 
self-sustenance  lias  been  ignored  to  a  startling  degree  in 
the  mad  struggle  for  riches,  but  the  coming  millions  of 
farmers  can  be  sure  of  a  luxurious  living  only  by  stoop- 
ing to  collect  it  from  the  soil. 

In  the  second  list  are  many  of  the  commonest  articles 
of  consumption,  which  California  might  readily  produce 
at  home,  but  for  which  it  sends  millions  of  dollars 
abroad  each  year.  The  imports  of  pork  and  its  products 
range  as  high  as  eight  or  ten  millions  each  year.  Con- 
densed milk  is  not  only  a  very  important  article  of  con- 
sumption in  mining -camps  and  great  ranches,  but  is 
largely  shipped  abroad  for  the  Asiatic  trade.  It  is 
brought  across  the  continent  from  New  Jersey.  Cali- 
fornia also  sends  beyond  its  borders  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  millions  annually  for  the  item  of  sugar,  which 
should  not  only  be  produced  in  sufficient  quantities  to 
supply  consumption,  but  for  export  as  well.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  many  of  the  finest  fruit  preserves  sold 
in  San  Francisco  bear  French  and  Italian  labels,  and 
that  the  supply  of  canned  sweet  corn  comes  mostly  from 
Maine.  Essential  oils  made  from  the  peelings  of  citrus 
fruits  are  also  imported.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find 
orange  marmalade  which  has  been  prepared  in  Rochester, 

133 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

New  York,  the  oranges  having  been  shipped  eastward, 
and  the  manufactured  product  westward,  at  the  cost  of 
two  transcontinental  freights.  Imports  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  things  which  require  capital  and  machinery 
for  their  manufacture.  Chickens,  turkeys,  and  eggs  are 
largely  brought  from  outside.  A  single  commission- 
house  in  San  Francisco  imports  five  hundred  thousand 
chickens  every  year.  Thus  a  good  many  thousands  of 
the  new  settlers  can  profitably  be  employed  in  feeding 
much  of  the  present  population  of  the  State,  which  in- 
cludes a  large  proportion  of  those  who  are  speculating  on 
wheat  and  fruit,  sheep,  cattle,  and  hogs. 

Having  made  perfectly  sure  of  his  living,  and  disposed 
of  his  surplus  for  cash  in  the  home  market,  the  settlor 
still  has  left  a  promising  field  in  the  list  of  things  which 
nine-tenths  of  the  American  people  consume  but  cannot 
produce.  Among  these  products  are  oranges,  lemons, 
and  limes.  Florida  competition  in  this  line  has  been 
temporarily  destroyed,  if  not  permanently  injured.  Mex- 
ico is,  perhaps,  a  rising  competitor  ;  but  there  is  little 
reason  to  fear  that  California  cannot  hold  its  own  against 
all  foreign  producers.  Even  more  promising  is  the  olive- 
culture  ;  for  while  the  orange  is  an  article  of  luxury,  the 
olive  must  ultimately  become  here  as  elsewhere  an  im- 
portant article  of  food.  Calif ornians  are  just  beginning 
to  pickle  the  ripe  olives.  The  difference  between  a  green 
olive  and  a  ripe  one  is  precisely  the  difference  between  a 
green  and  a  ripe  apple.  In  Spain  the  people  subsist 
largely  on  olives — but  not  on  green  ones.  All  who  have 
eaten  the  ripe  fruit  which  is  now  being  pickled  in  Cal- 
ifornia will  agree  that  it  is  conservative  to  say  that 
when  the  American  public  become  acquainted  with  this 

134 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

product,  its  consumption  will  be  enormously  increased. 
This  will  be  true,  because  in  its  new  form  the  olive  is  as 
nutritious  as  it  is  palatable,  and  the  people  will  learn  to 
depend  upon  it  as  an  article  of  diet.  In  the  production 
of  deciduous  fruits,  such  as  peaches,  apricots,  cherries, 
and  nectarines,  California  has  much  competition,  and  is 
to  have  much  more  in  the  future.  There  are  irrigated 
valleys  throughout  the  Pacific  Northwest,  the  inter- 
mountain  region,  and  the  now  undeveloped  Southwest, 
which  are  beginning  to  produce  marvellous  fruits  of  this 
kind.  The  same  is  true  of  olives,  almonds,  and  walnuts 
in  a  much  more  restricted  way.  The  California  wine  in- 
dustry is  promising  to-day,  and  the  culture  of  grapes  for 
this  purpose  profitable.  Planters  who  depend  for  their 
entire  income  upon  the  cultivation  of  these  export  crops 
will  necessarily  suffer  all  the  evils  of  speculative  farm- 
ing, but  those  who  have  founded  their  industry  upon  the 
plan  of  self-sufficiency  will  always  have  a  surplus  income 
from  this  third  source,  and  in  years  of  high  prices  it  will 
be  large.  It  is  thus  that  the  agricultural  basis  of  Cali- 
fornia will  be  indefinitely  broadened  in  order  to  sustain 
future  millions. 

Upon  this  foundation  manufactures,  mining,  and  an 
enlarged  commerce  will  rest.  The  first  cannot  be  long 
delayed.  California  will  not  permanently  endure  the 
enormous  waste  involved  in  shipping  its  wool  and  hides 
across  the  continent  to  Eastern  mills,  tanneries,  and 
workshops,  and  in  shipping  back  again  the  manufactured 
cloth  and  shoes.  The  factories  must  inevitably  grow  up 
near  the  raw  material  and  the  consumers.  Expediency 
and  the  economy  of  nature  alike  demand  it.  This  im- 
portant part  of  California's  civilization  remains  almost 

135 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

wholly  to  be  developed.  Its  growth  will  open  new  av- 
enues for  employment  and  new  outlets  for  the  products 
of  the  soil. 

The  mining  industry  is  also  in  its  youth.  To  use  a 
common  phrase,  but  a  true  one,  "  the  surface  of  the 
ground  has  only  been  scratched."  Old  methods  have 
been  outlived,  and  the  conditions  of  the  industry  are 
changing  in  vital  ways  ;  but  the  work  of  taking  gold  and 
silver,  copper,  lead,  and  iron  from  the  foot-hills  and 
mountains  of  California  has  only  been  begun.  The  day 
of  the  individual  miner,  working  with  his  pan  in  the 
gravel  bed  of  the  stream,  is  mostly  passed.  The  conditions 
of  hydraulic  mining  were  materially  altered  by  legisla- 
tion because  of  the  injury  done  by  polluting  the  rivers 
and  filling  their  channels  ;  but  quartz-mining  is  in  a 
state  of  rapid  development,  and  is  destined  to  assume 
prodigious  proportions.  It  will  add  untold  millions  to 
the  wealth  of  the  community,  increasing  the  demand  for 
labor  and  widening  the  markets  of  the  farmer. 

Nature  has  unquestionably  provided  the  foundation  of 
a  marvellous  industrial  life  in  which  millions  of  people 
will  finally  participate.  To-day  these  resources  are  un- 
developed. There  is  but  one  force  that  can  awaken  the 
sleeping  potentialities  into  a  manifold  and  fruitful  life. 
That  force  is  human  labor.  Looking  down  the  years  of 
the  future,  it  is  possible  to  predict,  with  the  accuracy  of 
mathematics,  that  human  labor  will  coin  from  these  va- 
cant valleys  and  rugged  mountain-sides  billions  upon 
billions  of  money.  The  wealth  to  be  so  created  will 
build  many  beautiful  homes,  capitalize  banks,  factories, 
and  railroads,  and  send  great  steamships  across  the  Pa- 
cific to  foreign  shores.  To  whom  shall  these  things  be- 

186 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

long  when  labor  has  made  them  from  the  materials 
which  nature  provided  ?  Upon  the  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion hang  the  destinies  of  California. 

The  seed  of  the  California  of  the  past  was  in  the  little 
group  of  feverish  gold-hunters  who  camped  by  Sutter's 
mill  in  1849.  It  bore  the  gaudy  weed  of  speculation, 
with  its  bitter  harvest  of  misfortune  and  discontent  for 
the  many,  accentuated  only  by  the  superfluous  riches 
which  it  gave  to  the  few.  The  seed  of  the  California  of 
the  future  is  in  the  irrigation  canals  owned  and  admin- 
istered by  small  landed  proprietors ;  in  the  fruit  ex- 
changes, which  are  supplanting  the  commission  system 
and  securing  to  the  producer  the  rewards  of  his  labor ; 
in  the  co  -  operative  creameries  and  canning  factories 
which,  in  the  face  of  deficient  capital  and  unfair  compe- 
tition, are  slowly  fighting  their  way  to  the  sure  ground 
of  abiding  prosperity ;  in  the  multitudinous  and  uni- 
formly successful  manufacturing  and  mercantile  associ- 
ations which  Mormon  genius  has  planted  in  the  valleys 
of  Utah ;  in  the  banks,  insurance  companies,  and  loan 
and  building  societies  which,  all  over  the  Union  and  all 
over  the  world,  have  vindicated  the  possibilities  of  asso- 
ciated man. 

It  is  interesting  to  consider  what  portions  of  California 
will  receive  the  bulk  of  the  future  population.  The 
topography  of  the  State  is  peculiar  and  readily  compre- 
hended. The  coast  region  presents  a  frontage  of  over 
one  thousand  miles  to  the  sea,  and  is  narrowly  hemmed 
in  by  mountain  ranges  which,  in  many  places,  come  down 
to  the  shore  itself.  But  in  these  mountains  there  are 
many  picturesque  and  fertile  valleys  which  have  long 
been  applied  to  agricultural  purposes.  The  coast  region 

137 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

has  a  climate  of  its  own.  It  is  the  mildest  type  of  the 
temperate  zone,  closety  verging  upon  the  semi-tropical, 
but  not  adapted  to  the  growth  of  citrus  fruits.  Here 
the  rainfall  is  heavier  than  elsewhere  in  California,  and 
proximity  to  the  sea  gives  rise  to  frequent  fogs.  In  the 
southern  extremity  of  this  region,  from  Santa  Barbara 
to  San  Diego,  the  climate  becomes  genuinely  semi- 
tropical  and  fogs  are  less  common.  North  of  San  Fran- 
cisco the  leading  industries  are  lumbering,  dairying, 
stock-raising,  and  general  farming,  with  some  mining. 
In  a  few  favored  valleys  fruit-raising  on  small  farms  is 
successfully  followed.  South  of  San  Franciso  the  lum- 
ber and  mining  interests  are  insignificant,  and  the  coun- 
try is  mostly  devoted  to  dairy,  stock,  and  general  farming. 
A  most  notable  exception  to  what  has  been  said  of  the 
general  condition  of  the  coast  region  is  the  Santa  Clara 
Valley,  which  contributes  enormously  to  the  exports  of 
the  State.  In  the  beauty  of  its  homes  and  orchards  and 
the  excellence  of  its  horticultural  methods,  in  the  organ- 
ization of  its  fruit  exchanges,  and  the  character  of  its 
urban  life  and  civic  institutions,  the  Santa  Clara  Valley 
is  fully  equal  to  the  most  ideal  localities  in  California, 
not  even  excepting  the  famous  orange  districts  near  Los 
Angeles.  There  are  numerous  opportunities  in  counties 
farther  south,  notably  in  Monterey,  San  Luis  Obispo, 
and  Santa  Barbara,  to  apply  the  same  methods  witli 
similar  results.  But  while  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  rep- 
resents the  finest  possibilities  of  the  coast  region,  it 
also  strikingly  illustrates  certain  failings  in  the  econom- 
ic system  of  the  State  which  have  been  dwelt  upon  in 
earlier  pages.  Land  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to 
fruit.  Fanners  buy  their  milk,  butter,  eggs,  poultry, 

138 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

bacon,  and  fresh  meats  of  others.  They  themselves  pro- 
duce none  of  the  real  necessities  of  life,  but  only  the 
luxuries.  One  reason  for  this  is  the  lack  of  irrigation. 
They  have  taught  themselves  to  believe  that  this  is  not 
only  unnecessary,  but  would  actually  be  injurious  to  the 
quality  of  their  fruit.  They  are  learning  gradually, 
however,  that  this  idea  is  erroneous  —  that  skilful  and 
proper  irrigation  is  always  beneficial,  and  that  artificial 
moisture  is  imperatively  necessary  to  diversified  produc- 
tion; hence,  to  the  highest  business  prosperity  and  best 
social  conditions.  When  this  lesson  is  learned  by  the 
coast  region  as  a  whole  a  new  era  will  set  in,  and  great 
numbers  of  colonists  will  come. 

What  is  popularly  known  as  southern  California  is  a 
narrowly  restricted  district  reaching  eastward  from  Los 
Angeles  for  about  one  hundred  miles  and  southward  to 
San  Diego.  Like  the  coast  region,  its  character  is  fixed, 
though  on  widely  different  lines.  Its  population  is  al- 
ready comparatively  dense,  and  its  future  growth  will  be 
measured  by  the  water  supply  for  irrigation.  While  it 
would  seem  as  if  the  water  resources  had  been  fully 
utilized,  the  fact  is  that  large  quantities  run  to  waste  in 
seasons  of  flood,  and  that  the  cultivable  area  can  be 
gradually  extended  by  storage  works  and  more  economi- 
cal methods  of  irrigation. 

It  is  an  impressive  fact  that  the  seven  counties  of  the 
south  received  sixty -one  per  cent,  of  the  increase  of 
rural  population  between  1880  and  1890.  This  marvel- 
lous showing  was  chiefly  due  to  the  superior  public  spirit 
of  the  locality,  and  to  the  attractive  institutions  which 
grew  out  of  it.  Los  Angeles  itself  is  the  throbbing 
heart  of  a  region  which,  in  many  respects,  has  no  equal 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

in  the  world.  The  leading  characteristics  of  this  locali- 
ty have  been  referred  to  in  another  chapter.  But  the 
very  success  which  attended  these  methods  in  the  past 
place  limitations  upon  the  country  as  a  field  for  future 
expansion.  Land  values  have  risen  high,  and  the  water- 
supply  has  become  almost  as  precious  as  gold.  Health- 
seekers  and  the  leisure  class  have  been  attracted  in  large 
numbers,  and  occupy  the  field  which  would  otherwise 
be  open  to  home-makers  of  smaller  means.  A  class  of 
wealthy  people  is  a  prominent  feature  of  immigration 
in  the  southern  valley.  These  opulent  settlers  plant 
orchards  of  oranges,  lemons,  and  olives,  just  as  their 
poorer  neighbors  do.  It  is  reassuring  to  reflect,  how- 
ever, that  they  can  accomplish  little  more  with  their 
abundant  capital  than  humbler  settlers  may  do  with 
their  united  labor.  The  sun,  the  sky,  the  earth,  and  tho 
waters  will  be  as  kind  to  one  class  as  to  the  other. 
While  it  should  not  be  inferred  that  none  but  the  very 
rich  can  settle  in  the  south,  it  is  perfectly  true  that  this 
charming  district  is  not  within  the  field  of  the  largest 
future  developments. 

A  district  known  as  Antelope  Valley  is  one  of  the  later 
developments  of  southern  California.  This  lies  north  of 
the  Sierra  Madre  mountains,  on  the  southern  margin  of 
the  Mojave  Desert.  Irrigation  has  here  begun  to  evolve 
orchards,  fields,  and  beautiful  homes  from  conditions 
which,  in  their  virgin  state,  were  peculiarly  forbidding. 
A  series  of  promising  colonies,  chiefly  engaged  in  almond- 
culture,  have  been  successfully  established.  But  tho 
amount  of  land  that  can  be  reclaimed  in  this  locality  is 
severely  limited  by  the  scanty  water  supply. 

Where,  then,  is  the  field  to  accommodate  the  hosts 
140 


THE    TRUTH    ABOUT    CALIFORNIA 

who  will  como  when  the  population  of  California  begins 
to  approximate  that  of  France  ?  It  lies  principally  in 
four  great  and  distinct  bodies,  which  may  be  named,  in 
the  order  of  their  importance,  as  follows :  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley,  stretching  north  from  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco  to  the  feet  of  snowy  Shasta  ;  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley,  reaching  south  from  the  great  bay  to  the  place 
where  the  two  mountain  -  ranges  meet  at  the  pass  of 
Tehachapi;  the  intermountain  valleys  on  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  Sierra,  extending  over  the  boundary  into 
Nevada;  and  the  Colorado  Desert,  in  the  extreme  south- 
eastern part  of  the  State,  on  the  borders  of  Mexico. 

The  first  of  these,  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  re- 
ceived an  addition  of  only  two  thousand  to  its  rural  pop- 
ulation, out  of  a  total  of  nearly  ninety-seven  thousand 
for  the  State,  between  1880  and  1890.  The  fault  lay 
neither  with  the  soil  nor  the  climate,  which  are  equal  to 
those  of  any  part  of  California,  but  with  economic  con- 
ditions. The  country  is  held  in  vast  estates,  principally 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  grain,  which  has  been  a 
losing  industry  for  several  years.  Where  horticulture 
has  been  adopted  it  has  frequently  been  done  upon  a 
great  scale.  The  vast  orchards  and  vine}Tards  of  Mrs. 
Stanford,  of  General  Bid  well,  and  of  A.  T.  Hatch  are 
striking  instances  of  this  tendency.  When  General  N." 
P.  Chipman,  himself  a  distinguished  resident  of  the 
Sacramento  Valley,  called  attention  to  the  startling  rev- 
elations contained  in  the  census  figures,  the  matter  waa 
widely  discussed,  but  with  little  result.  The  public 
spirit  which  has  given  the  southern  counties  their  splen- 
did place  in  the  life  of  the  Pacific  coast  is  distinctly 
lacking  in  the  north.  The  truth  is  that  it  cannot  be 

141 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

cultivated  on  wheat-fields  or  in  mining-camps.  It  comes 
with  irrigation,  with  the  subdivision  of  the  land  into 
thousands  of  diminutive  holdings,  with  a  citizenship 
composed  of  a  multitude  of  small  proprietors. 

These  conditions  are  exactly  reversed  in  the  northern 
valley,  with  pitiful  results.  The  same  forces  would 
make  the  same  civilization  in  both  localities,  for  the 
physical  foundation  is  practically  identical.  The  south- 
ern valley  lies  open  to  the  sea,  the  breezes  from  which 
mercifully  temper  the  summer  heat.  In  other  respects 
the  advantages  are  all  on  the  side  of  the  Sacramento. 
It  is  far  greater  in  area;  its  water  supplies  are  both  more 
abundant  and  more  reliable ;  its  surrounding  advantages, 
notably  in  the  way  of  mines  and  timber,  are  much  supe- 
rior. Finally,  it  possesses  the  inestimable  blessing  of  a 
mighty  river,  navigable  for  a  distance  of  two  hundred 
miles,  and  capable  of  being  much  improved.  This  is  a 
factor  of  the  highest  import.  It  furnishes  cheap  trans- 
portation by  boat,  and  materially  lessens  railroad  charges. 
Furthermore,  it  gives  the  valley  a  comprehensive  system 
of  drainage  from  Shasta  to  the  sea.  The  wonderful  min- 
eral riches  of  this  locality  will  be  rapidly  developed. 
They  are  by  no  means  confined  to  gold,  but  include  a 
variety  of  natural  riches.  What  has  proven  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  copper-mines  in  the  world  has  recently  been 
opened  in  Shasta  county,  with  the  aid  of  British  capital- 
ists. It  is  from  the  foot-hills  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Sacramento  Valley  that  the  earliest  oranges  and  lemons 
seek  the  market.  They  command  high  prices,  and  are 
mostly  sold  on  the  coast  from  San  Francisco  to  British 
Columbia.  It  is  in  this  imperial  valley,  and  in  the  foot- 
hills and  mountains  which  rise  above  it  in  splendid  pict- 

142 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

tiros  on  each  side,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  future 
millions  will  find  homes  and  prosperity. 

Irrigation  is  by  no  means  absolutely  necessary  in  the 
Sacramento  Valley.     If  it  had  been,  the  story  of  its  set- 
tlement and  industrial  progress  would  be  different  from 
what  it  is.     No  one  could  then  truthfully  assert,  as  now, 
that  this  splendid  district  contains  less  population  than 
it  had  twenty-five  years  ago.     Producing  fair  crops  of 
grain  and  of  deciduous  fruits  without  artificial  moisture, 
the  country  has  been  given  over  to  large  ranches  and 
scattered  orchards  and  wholly  deprived  of  the  powerful 
social  influences  which  lent  such  distinction  to  the  civil- 
ization of  southern  California.     While  irrigation  is  not 
indispensable  in  the  north,  it  is  essential  to  the  best  and 
highest  results,  especially  in  the  line  of  small-farming. 
The  rainless  season  usually  extends  from  May  until  No- 
vember.    Without  irrigation  there  can  be  no  beautiful 
lawns,  successive  crops  of  vegetables  and  small  fruits,  or 
goodly  yields  of  alfalfa.     One  acre  under  reliable  irriga- 
tion is  more  valuable,  for  the  purpose  of  small,  diversi- 
fied farming,  than  ten  acres  without  it.    The  citrus  fruits 
cannot  profitably  be  cultivated  except  by  irrigation,  and 
there  is  no  fruit  which  is  not  improved,  both  in  quality 
and  quantity,  by  the  proper  application  of  water.     This 
claim  is   often   stoutly  disputed,  particularly  by  those 
wishing  to  sell  land  that  cannot  be  irrigated.     But  ex- 
perience has  taught  that  northern  California  can  only 
hope  to  equal  the  southern  part  of  the  State  by  imitating 
its  industrial  methods,  of  which  irrigation  is  the  foremost. 
The  San  Joaquin  Valley  is  even  larger,  and  in  many 
respects  resembles  its  northern  sister.     Indeed,  the  con- 
ditions of  soil,  climate,  and  productions  are  so  nearly 

143 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

identical  that  they  need  not  be  rehearsed.  Here  irriga- 
tion and  the  small  farm  had  begun  to  make  themselves 
felt,  and  the  single  county  of  Fresno  gained  more  than 
five  times  as  much  in  population  in  the  last  census  dec- 
ade as  the  entire  Sacramento  Valley.  Perhaps  the  earliest 
triumph  of  the  new  woman  in  this  generation  was  that  of 
Miss  Austin  and  her  three  associates — all  school-teachers 
of  San  Francisco  —  who  founded  the  wonderful  Fresno 
raisin  industry.  Investing  their  savings  in  a  ranch,  and 
then  boldly  venturing  upon  a  culture  in  which  few  had 
faith,  they  demonstrated  that  raisins  equal  to  those  of 
Spain  could  be  produced  in  the  San  Joaquin.  They  were 
rewarded  with  handsome  profits,  and  later  thousands  of 
people  shared  in  the  benefits  of  their  demonstration. 
But  speculation  and  the  fallacy  of  the  single  crop  fol- 
lowed as  natural  consequences,  bringing  hard  times, 
mortgages,  and  disappointment  in  their  train.  In  the 
mean  time  unskilful  irrigation  without  proper  drainage 
wrought  harm  in  various  ways.  All  of  these  misfortunes 
are  being  overcome,  but  it  is  not  easy  for  the  great  valley 
to  undo  the  injury  which  its  reputation  has  suffered  in 
the  last  few  years.  Nevertheless,  the  country  of  the  San 
Joaquin  contains  great  possibilities,  and  will  sustain  a 
dense  population.  Its  contiguous  mountains  are  richly 
endowed  with  mines  and  great  timber,  as  well  as  with 
the  sublimest  scenery.  Among  its  valuable  resources  are 
artesian  wells  of  large  size,  so  situated  as  to  be  available 
for  use  in  irrigation. 

The  valleys  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  have 
been,  and  are  yet,  the  grain-fields  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
Many  of  their  residents  have  bemoaned  the  fall  in  the 
price  of  wheat  as  the  greatest  of  calamities.  The  truth 

H4 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

is  that  for  California  it  is  tho  first  of  blessings.  The 
fall  in  wheat  prices  has  broken  the  land  monopoly  which 
kept  labor  servile  and  gave  tho  most  fruitful  of  coun- 
tries to  four-footed  beasts  rather  than  to  men.  Not  until 
nearly  all  great  ranches  had  been  mortgaged  to  their 
full  capacity,  not  until  the  failure  of  prices  had  made 
the  debts  intolerably  burdensome  and  brought  their 
owners  face  to  face  with  disaster,  was  it  possible  to 
open  the  country  for  its  best  and  highest  uses.  With 
the  supremacy  of  wheat  will  go  the  shanty  and  the 
"hobo"  laborer,  to  be  followed  in  time  by  the  China- 
man. In  their  places  will  come  the  home  and  the  man 
who  works  for  himself.  Civilization  will  bloom  where 
barbarism  has  blighted  the  land.  There  are  localities 
where  the  cultivation  of  grain  can  be  pursued,  but  the 
semi-tropical  valleys  of  California  were  plainly  intended 
for  better  things. 

Irrigation,  drainage,  and  cheap  transportation  are  close- 
ly related  as  economic  problems  in  the  great  interior  val- 
leys. William  Hammond  Hall,  the  former  State  engineer, 
has  predicted  that  within  fifty  years  the  waters  which  rise 
in  the  mountains  and  meander  through  these  valleys  to 
the  sea  will  all  be  utilized  to  moisten  and  fertilize  the 
soil,  and  then  be  turned  into  canals,  serving  the  double 
purpose  of  drainage  and  transportation.  He  claims  that 
it  is  feasible,  from  an  engineering  stand-point,  to  con- 
struct such  works,  and  to  propel  trains  of  freight-boats 
by  electricity  at  a  speed  of  six  miles  an  hour.  If  this 
shall  be  done,  the  gain  to  the  State  will  be  beyond  all 
calculation,  provided  the  works  be  owned  by  the  public. 
It  is  by  no  means  an  idle  dream  when  considered  in  con- 
nection with  ultimate  California. 
K  ur>  • 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

The  third  field  for  future  development  is  a  vast  region 
lying  upon  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  This 
is  so  little  known  to  the  outside  world  that  it  may  almost 
be  named  as  Undiscovered  California.  It  is  reached 
only  by  lines  of  narrow-gauge  railway  running  northwest 
and  southwest,  respectively,  from  Reno,  Nevada.  The 
northerly  district  is  included  in  the  three  great  coun- 
ties of  Plurnas,  Lassen,  and  Modoc.  The  country  is 
distinctly  arid,  lying  upon  the  western  flank  of  the  great 
basin  formed  by  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Wasatch  ranges, 
which  inclose  portions  of  California,  Idaho,  and  Utah,  and 
all  of  Nevada.  Here  we  find  the  real  sage-brush  desert — 
fertile,  well-watered  valleys  surrounded  by  all  the  wealth 
of  forest,  mine,  and  natural  pastures.  The  climate  ap- 
proximates much  more  nearly  to  that  of  New  Mexico 
than  to  that  commonly  associated  with  the  name  of  Cali- 
fornia. It  is  of  the  milder  type  of  the  temperate  zone, 
favorable  to  the  growth  of  such  hardy  fruits  as  apples, 
pears,  peaches,  and  prunes.  Up  to  this  time,  however, 
the  chief  products  of  the  country  are  native  and  alfalfa 
hay,  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses.  The  sparse  population 
is,  perhaps,  as  prosperous  as  any  farming  community  in 
the  United  States.  This  fact  IG  mostly  due  to  the  vast 
extent  of  fine  grazing  lands  surrounding  irrigated  valleys 
and  to  the  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep  which  find  their  way 
to  the  farmers'  hay-stacks  from  the  ranges  of  northern 
California,  southern  Oregon,  and  western  Nevada  every 
autumn  and  winter. 

The  most  important  district  in  this  region  is  Honey 
Lake  Valley,  lying  eighty  miles  northwest  of  Reno.  Here 
a  new  era  has  set  in  with  water-storage  for  irrigation, 
Bmall  farms,  and  colonies  planned  upon  the  best  ideals. 

146 


THE    TRUTH    ABOUT    CALIFORNIA 

Cheap  land,  valuable  surrounding  resources,  and  a  cli- 
mate similar  to  that  in  which  our  race  has  flourished 
best,  would  seem  to  combine  in  favoring  a  large  and 
rapid  future  growth. 

The  more  southern  body  east  of  the  Sierras  lies  chiefly 
in  Inyo  county.  This  is  also  at  the  early  stage  of  de- 
velopment. The  climate  is  milder,  though  still  temper- 
ate rather  than  semi-tropical,  than  in  the  more  northern 
counties.  There  are  many  beautiful  valleys  and  an 
abundance  of  water,  timber,  and  minerals. 

Lack  of  railroad  facilities  and  remoteness  from  large 
cities  account  for  the  backwardness  of  development  in 
these  attractive  regions  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  moun- 
tains. They  present  to-day  the  finest  field  for  develop- 
ment in  California,  and  one  of  the  finest  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.  There  can  be  no  question  that  during  the 
next  century  they  will  become  the  homes  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  and  the  seat  of  a  manifold  industrial 
life. 

The  fourth  field  open  to  future  conquest  is  the  Colo- 
rado Desert — most  famous  of  waste-places  in  America.  It 
is  popularly  regarded  as  an  empire  of  hopeless  sterility, 
the  silence  of  which  will  never  be  broken  by  the  voices 
of  men.  As  the  transcontinental  traveller  views  it  from 
his  flying  train  it  presents  an  aspect  indeed  forbidding. 
Neither  animal  life  nor  human  habitation  breaks  its  level 
monotony.  It  stretches  from  mountain-range  to  moun- 
tain-range, a  brown  waste  of  dry  and  barren  soil.  And 
yet  it  only  awaits  the  touch  of  water  and  of  labor  to 
awaken  into  opulent  life.  Only  the  most  superficial  view 
of  it  is  caught  from  the  passing  trains,  while  those  who 
have  penetrated  into  its  heart  and  across  the  boundary 

147  • 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

into  Mexico  compose  but  a  slender  list  of  prospectors, 
hunters,  surveyors,  and  curious  travellers.  But  some  of 
these  have  made  careful  studies,  and  this  really  wonder- 
ful country  is  beginning  to  attract  the  attention  of  both 
capitalists  and  settlers,  though  the  former  must  do  their 
work  before  the  latter  can  hope  to  occupy  the  land. 

Much  time  will  be  required  to  overcome  the  wide  and 
ingrained  public  prejudice  against  the  Colorado  Desert, 
but  it  will  finally  be  reclaimed  and  sustain  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  prosperous  people.  It  is  more  like  Syria  than 
any  other  part  of  the  United  States,  and  the  daring  im- 
agination may  readily  conceive  that  here  a  new  Damas- 
cus will  arise  more  beautiful  than  that  of  old. 

With  the  occuption  of  the  Colorado  Desert  and  of  the 
great  peninsula  which  adjoins  it,  a  powerful  impulse  will 
be  given  to  agriculture,  mining,  and  commerce  in  a  vast 
region  now  little  peopled.  One  of  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences will  be  the  rise  of  San  Diego  to  the  proportions 
of  a  large  city — probably  the  largest  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  coast. 

The  future  of  California  will  be  very  different  from  its 
past.  It  has  been  the  land  of  large  things — of  large  es- 
tates, of  large  enterprises,  of  large  fortunes.  Under  an- 
other form  of  government  it  would  have  developed  a 
feudal  system,  with  a  landed  aristocracy  resting  on  a 
basis  of  servile  labor.  These  were  its  plain  tendencies 
years  ago,  when  somebody  coined  the  epigram,  "Cali- 
fornia is  the  rich  man's  paradise  and  the  poor  man's 
hell."  But  later  developments  have  shown  that  what- 
ever of  paradise  the  Golden  State  can  offer  to  the  rich,  it 
will  share,  upon  terms  of  marvellous  equality,  with  the 
middle  classes  of  American  life.  Over  and  above  all  other 

148 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CALIFORNIA 

countries,  it  is  destined  to  be  the  land  of  the  common 
people.  This  is  true,  because,  owing  to  its  peculiar  cli- 
matic conditions,  it  requires  less  land  to  sustain  a  family 
in  generous  comfort.  For  the  same  reason,  cheaper  cloth- 
ing and  shelter,  as  well  as  less  fuel,  suffice,  while  it  is  pos- 
sible to  realize  more  perfectly  the  ideal  of  producing  what 
is  consumed.  Moreover,  it  is  a  natural  field  for  the  ap- 
plication of  associative  industry  and  the  growth  of  the 
highest  social  conditions.  Indeed,  the  country  has  dis- 
tinctly failed  as  a  land  of  big  things,  and  achieved  its 
best  successes  in  the  opposite  direction.  Its  true  and 
final  greatness  will  consist  of  the  aggregate  of  small 
things — of  small  estates,  of  small  enterprises,  of  small 
fortunes.  Progress  towards  this  end  is  already  well  be- 
gun. It  must  go  on  until  the  last  great  estate  is  dis- 
membered and  the  last  alien  serf  is  returned  to  the 
Orient.  Upon  the  ruins  of  the  old  system  a  better  civili- 
zation will  arise.  It  will  be  the  glory  of  the  common 
people,  to  whose  labor  and  genius  it  will  owe  its  exist- 
ence. Its  outreaching  and  beneficent  influence  will  be 
felt  throughout  the  world. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   NEW   DAY   IN   COLORADO 

THE  old  day  in  Colorado  was  the  era  of  frontier  bar- 
barism. The  glitter  of  Pike's  Peak  gold  drew  throngs 
of  adventurous  folk  who  toiled  across  the  plains  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska  in  wagon-trains  that  they  might  spec- 
ulate in  the  mysterious  possibilities  of  a  new  country. 
They  were  not  home- builders,  but  fortune-hunters. 
Wherever  they  found  placer  gold  rude  settlements  sprang 
up. 

In  the  mean  time  the  cattle  industry  began  to  contend 
with  Indians  and  buffalo  for  the  possession  of  the  grazing 
lands  which  sloped  away  from  the  Rockies,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  base  of  supplies  planted  the  seeds  of. a  few  per- 
manent towns,  such  as  Denver  and  Pueblo.  These  were 
mere  clusters  of  rude  homes  and  stores  which  seemed  to 
hold  out  scant  promise  of  future  importance.  The  In- 
dians were  numerous  and  troublesome,  and  the  life  of 
the  pioneers  was  spiced  with  danger.  Though  the  coun- 
try belonged  nominally  to  Kansas,  there  was  but  the 
slightest  pretence  of  civil  government.  Practically  the 
only  authority  was  that  exercised  by  organizations  of  cit- 
izens, who  brought  horse-thieves  and  murderers  to  speedy 
justice  upon  the  most  convenient  tree. 

In  18G1  Colorado  became  a  Territory,  and  was  then 
150 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

able  to  den,!  more  effectively  with  the  Indian,  who  was 
the  common  enemy  and  an  obstacle  to  settlement  and 
development.  There  was  little  in  these  early  conditions 
to  encourage  the  hope  that  a  great  and  populous  State 
could  be  established  amid  the  mountains  and  plateaus. 
Mines,  cattle,  and  border  traffic  were  not  alone  sufficient 
for  the  making  of  civilization.  Beyond  these  crude  in- 
dustries the  future  was  speculative.  The  country  was 
unexplored,  the  resources  undeveloped,  the  conditions 
untried.  The  transformation  which  swiftly  followed 
upon  this  period  of  doubt  converted  the  frontier  commu- 
nity into  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  promising  of 
American  States. 

The  dawn  of  the  new  day  was  heralded  by  the  whistle 
of  the  locomotive.  The  dissolution  of  the  Union  armies 
had  turned  the  faces  of  many  thousand  veterans  towards 
the  trans-Missouri  region,  and  of  these  Colorado  re- 
ceived its  full  share.  The  wonderful  era  of  railroad- 
building — perhaps  the  most  dramatic  page  in  all  our  in- 
dustrial history — had  just  begun.  These  circumstances 
conspired  to  give  a  new  and  powerful  impulse  to  the  ter- 
ritory at  the  base  of  the  Eocky  Mountains.  Large  cap- 
ital joined  hands  with  the  increasing  stream  of  immi- 
grants, and  Colorado  entered  with  amazing  vigor  upon  a 
stage  of  real  and  far-reaching  development.  More  im- 
portant than  the  finding  of  gold  was  the  discovery  of 
the  fact  that  the  highest  forms  of  agriculture  would 
flourish  with  the  aid  of  irrigation.  When  this  had  been 
demonstrated  by  the  pioneers  there  was  no  longer  doubt 
about  the  future  greatness  of  the  State  or  the  character 
of  its  civilization.  Denver  and  a  few  other  settlements 
began  to  take  on  the  appearance  of  permanency,  and 

151 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

even  to   exhibit  the  signs  of  coming   refinement  and 
power. 

The  settlers  of  Greeley  inaugurated  large  irrigation 
enterprises  and  planted  seeds  from  which  the  finest  civic 
institutions  were  to  grow.  General  William  J.  Palmer 
and  his  friends,  anticipating  the  commercial  value  of  cli- 
mate and  scenery  even  before  the  industrial  economy  of 
the  community  was  established,  laid  out  Colorado  Springs, 
at  the  foot  of  Pike's  Peak,  and  began  to  make  Manitou 
and  the  Garden  of  the  Gods  ready  for  future  thousands 
of  health-seekers  and  tourists.  Pueblo  quickly  felt  the 
importance  of  its  position  on  the  banks  of  the  Arkan- 
sas at  the  gateway  of  the  mountains,  and  developed  rap- 
idly in  population  and  business.  The  daring  conception 
of  a  railroad  to  parallel  the  Rockies  and  open  communi- 
cation with  Mexico,  or  to  scale  the  giant  peaks  and 
penetrate  the  wilderness  which  lay  beyond,  took  posses- 
sion of  General  Palmer's  mind  and  furnished  the  hope 
of  further  extraordinary  developments. 

Thus  the  decade  between  1870  and  1880  saw  the  rise 
of  Colorado  to  a  place  of  immense  promise  and  of  im- 
portant achievement,  and  in  1876  the  nation  signalized 
the  centennial  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  be- 
stowing the  rich  privilege  of  sovereignty  upon  the  new- 
born commonwealth. 

The  Colorado  of  to-day  contains  a  population  of  a 
little  less  than  half  a  million.  It  is  marvellously  fort- 
unate in  its  railroad  development,  having  twenty-four 
separate  lines,  which  maintain  over  five  thousand  miles 
of  track,  penetrating  nearly  every  part  of  the  State.  Its 
mines  of  precious  and  base  metals  —  very  largely  the 
former — yield  an  annual  income  of  nearly  fifty  millions. 

152 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

Its  two  million  acres  of  irrigated  land  add  forty  millions 
more  to  the  annual  industrial  product.  Although  man- 
ufactures are  in  their  infancy,  they  even  now  produce 
goods  to  the  value  of  thirty-five  millions.  Other  busi- 
ness transactions,  represented  by  the  commercial  and 
professional  classes,  represent  considerably  more  than 
one  hundred  millions  each  year.  The  live-stock  indus- 
try is  difficult  to  estimate,  but  adds  very  largely  to  the 
yearly  production  of  wealth. 

Such  are  the  results  wrought  out  by  the  labor  of  a 
single  generation  upon  the  raw  resources  of  a  new  State. 
Before  glancing  at  the  people  who  have  organized  such 
an  economic  life  in  so  brief  a  space  of  years,  and  at  the 
institutions  they  have  created,  it  is  important  to  con- 
sider the  material  foundation  on  which  they  have  built. 

Colorado  owes  something  to  its  scenery,  much  to  its 
climate,  yet  more  to  its  mines.  The  first  of  these  made 
it  widely  known  as  one  of  nature's  wonderlands.  The 
second  was  a  prime  factor  in  attracting  population. 
The  third  poured  a  large  and  continuous  stream  of 
wealth  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  a  little  further 
on  we  shall  see  how  loyally  this  has  been  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  State.  The  grandeur  of  the  scenery  and 
the  charm  of  the  climate  are  both  matters  of  popular 
knowledge.  Neither  is  peculiar  to  Colorado,  for  both 
are  characteristic  of  the  arid  region  as  a  whole.  But 
nowhere  else  do  the  ordinary  paths  of  travel  lead 
through  so  grand  a  scenic  region  as  in  Colorado,  nor  has 
any  other  locality  been  as  fortunate  in  the  energy  and 
intelligence  bestowed  upon  the  work  of  making  this 
phase  of  its  attractions  widely  and  favorably  known. 

The  Colorado  climate  is  the  product  of  high  altitude 

153 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

and  aridity.  Denver  is  one  mile  above  the  level  of  New 
York  harbor,  and  much  of  the  inhabited  portion  of  the 
State  is  even  higher.  The  result  is  a  rarefied  atmos- 
phere very  exhilarating  in  its  effects  and  extremely 
favorable  to  persons  suffering  with  certain  kinds  of  dis- 
eases. Summer  and  winter  are  almost  equally  de- 
lightful, though  presenting  great  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold. 

Of  the  mineral  wealth  it  is  needless  to  say  more  than 
that  it  increases  its  annual  output  with  regularity,  and 
that  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  much  the 
greater  part  of  it  yet  remains  to  be  discovered  and  de- 
veloped. It  will  be  a  permanent  resource  of  the  highest 
utility,  since  most  of  it  is  directly  converted  into  money 
at  the  local  mints.  While  the  energies  of  the  mining 
industry  are  chiefly  centred  upon  the  search  for  precious 
metals,  the  country  is  endowed  with  the  greatest  variety 
of  mineral  riches.  These  include  nearly  all  the  base 
metals,  such  as  copper,  lead,  and  iron,  as  well  as  coal,  oil, 
precious  and  semi  -  precious  stones,  granite,  marble, 
onyx,  and  sandstone.  These  materials  exist  in  the  great- 
est profusion,  but  must  lie  mostly  unused  until  the  pop- 
ulation largely  increases. 

In  considering  the  matter  of  agricultural  development, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  Colorado  is  the  crown  of 
the  continent.  Its  lofty  mountain-peaks  cut  the  rain- 
fall and  melting  snows  in  twain,  sending  one  part  to  the 
Pacific  and  the  other  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  same 
influence  makes  a  radical  division  in  climate,  produc- 
tions, and  the  character  of  agriculture.  Irrigation  devel- 
opment naturally  began  earliest  where  streams  could 
most  easily  be  diverted.  This  was  on  the  high  plateau 

154 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

which  slopes  eastward  from  the  foot-hills  and  merges  into 
the  Great  Plains  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas. 

For  a  period  of  nearly  twenty  years,  beginning  in 
1870,  canal  construction  and  the  settlement  of  lands 
were  actively  carried  on  in  this  part  of  the  State.  The 
scene  of  action  was  principally  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Cache  la  Poudre,  the  Platte,  and  the  Arkansas.  Here  the 
farms  are  of  large  size  for  an  irrigated  region,  though 
the  present  tendency  favors  a  smaller  unit.  These  dis- 
tricts, prosperous  in  ordinary  times,  have  not  escaped 
the  evil  effects  of  the  general  depression  in  recent  years. 
The  products  are  diversified  and  largely  disposed  of  in 
the  home  market.  In  the  upper  Arkansas  Valley,  where 
the  foot-hills  furnish  shelter  from  the  high  winds  pre- 
vailing at  certain  seasons,  fruit-culture  has  been  notably 
successful.  Prices  of  unimproved  lands  on  the  eastern 
slope  range  from  twenty  to  fifty  dollars  per  acre,  while 
cultivated  lands  are  valued  at  one  hundred  dollars  an 
acre  and  upwards,  according  to  the  extent  of  improve- 
ments and  location  with  reference  to  cities  or  large 
towns.  The  glimpse  we  have  had  in  an  earlier  chapter 
of  the  agricultural  industry  of  Greeley  Colony  may  be 
accepted  as  true  of  the  entire  region  east  of  the  moun- 
tains, for  Greeley  has  been  the  model  to  which  other 
districts  have  looked  for  inspiration.  The  experimental 
farms  which  surround  the  agricultural  college  at  Fort 
Collins  undoubtedly  represent  the  highest  type  of  irri- 
gation results  in  this  part  of  the  State.  In  the  Arkansas 
Valley  the  altitude  is  lower  and  the  climate  more  favor- 
able for  small  farming  and  fruit-culture. 

The  San  Luis  Valley  is  an  elevated  plateau  lying  be- 
tween parallel   mountain  -  ranges  in  the  southern  and 

155 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

central  part  of  the  State.  Here  a  vast  expenditure  has 
been  made  for  irrigation  works,  but  efforts  at  settlement 
have  been  almost  uniformly  disappointing.  The  expla- 
nation is  found  in  the  altitude,  which  is  from  seven  thou- 
sand to  eight  thousand  feet  above  sea-level.  This  makes 
short  seasons  and  limits  the  farmer's  industry  to  the 
hardiest  class  of  crops.  There  is  no  month  in  the  year 
when  frost  is  not  likely  to  occur ;  yet  the  country  makes 
a  wonderful  yield  of  grain,  of  vegetables,  and  frequently 
of  small  fruits.  There  are  instances  of  great  prosperity 
on  the  part  of  individual  settlers,  but  as  a  whole  the 
valley  shows  a  record  of  failure  for  those  who  have  at- 
tempted to  make  homes  there.  A  striking  example  to 
the  contrary  is  seen  in  a  few  thriving  communities  of 
Mormons.  The  industrial  system  which  we  have  already 
studied  in  connection  with  Utah  produces  the  same  good 
results  in  the  San  Luis  Valley.  In  view  of  this  fact  it 
must  be  assumed  that  the  locality  will  eventually  be 
settled  and  sustain  thousands  of  prosperous  people. 
Land  and  water  may  be  obtained  more  cheaply  here  than 
anywhere  else  in  Colorado,  and  there  is  a  good  market 
for  the  products  of  the  soil.  The  costly  preliminary 
work  of  reclamation  has  been  well  done  in  advance.  A 
labor  colony,  founded  upon  wise  plans,  backed  by  suffi- 
cient capital,  and  inspired  and  managed  by  skilful  lead- 
ership, would  solve  the  problem  of  colonization  for  the 
San  Luis  Valley,  while  furnishing  work  and  homes  for 
those  who  need  them.  The  Mormon  communities  are 
practically  of  this  character  in  the  beginning. 

The  western  slope  of  Colorado  constitutes  a  region 
entirely  distinct.  From  a  casual  glance  at  the  map  it 
would  be  inferred  that  about  two-thirds  of  the  State  con- 

156 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

sist  exclusively  of  mountains,  and  are  therefore  unfitted 
for  settlement.  The  truth  is  that  there  arc  many  beau- 
tiful valleys  of  varying  size  and  elevation,  and  that  these 
are  destined  to  sustain  the  most  interesting  and  profit- 
able agricultural  districts  of  Colorado.  Unlike  the  east- 
ern slope,  there  is  here  more  water  than  irrigable  land — 
a  condition  almost  unique  in  the  arid  region.  The  val- 
leys are  so  protected  by  the  mountains  which  inclose 
them  upon  either  hand  as  to  have  a  climate  of  their  own. 
This  is  perceptibly  influenced  by  the  warm  winds  which 
make  their  way  from  the  Gulf  of  California  through  the 
canyons  of  the  Colorado  river.  These  conditions  are 
extremely  favorable  for  the  culture  of  the  most  delicate 
fruit  and  for  the  diversification  of  general  crops.  The 
principal  rivers  of  the  western  slope  are  the  Grand,  the 
Green,  and  the  San  Juan.  These  are  fed  by  the  prolific 
snows  of  the  higher  Rockies,  and  carry  a  strong  and  tur- 
bulent flow  of  water  throughout  the  year.  They  are  not 
always  readily  diverted,  however,  as  their  channels  have 
been  deeply  cut  through  the  rocks  and  soil,  and  the 
stream  often  flows  below  the  level  of  the  tract  to  be  irri- 
gated. This  makes  it  necessary  to  elevate  the  water  in 
many  instances  by  pumping  machinery,  which  can  be 
operated  cheaply  by  the  power  of  the  stream  itself,  or 
by  the  use  of  coal,  which  in  many  cases  is  found  close  at 
hand. 

The  best  example  of  the  possibilities  of  the  western 
slope  is  seen  in  the  neighborhood  of  Grand  Junction, 
where  two  splendid  streams — the  Grand  and  the  Gunni- 
son — join  forces  and  flow  westward  to  their  meeting  with 
the  Green  river  across  the  Utah  boundary.  Here  the 
valley  opens  out  into  a  broad  desert,  with  foot-hills,  or 

157 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

mesas,  marking  the  rise  to  the  mountain  masses  which 
line  the  horizon  on  either  hand.  To  the  eye  of  the 
traveller  who  has  just  come  through  the  awe-inspiring 
scenery  of  the  mountains  and  narrow  upper  valleys, 
nothing  could  be  less  promising  than  the  brown  waste  of 
arid  soil  which  he  beholds  upon  approaching  Grand 
Junction.  The  scene  is  one  of  utter  desolation,  for  even 
sage-brush  aiid  mesquite  are  absent  from  large  portions 
of  the  landscape.  The  roaring  river  hurrying  down  the 
slope  seems  to  mock,  with  hoarse  laughter,  the  unfruitful 
soil,  which  stretches  away  from  its  banks  in  silence  and 
in  sunshine.  But  if  the  traveller  leaves  the  train  and 
rides  out  a  few  miles  upon  the  desert  he  will  quickly  in- 
terpret the  mystery  of  these  conditions.  Wherever  the 
water  has  been  married  to  the  soil,  prolific  fields  and 
orchards  have  sprung  from  the  union — such  fields  and 
orchards  as  may  be  rivalled  as  yet  only  in  semi-tropic 
California.  The  favorite  size  of  farms  is  from  ten  to 
twenty  acres,  or  only  about  one-fourth  or  one-eighth  of 
the  average  area  of  farms  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Col- 
orado. 

Fruit-culture  chiefly  claims  the  thought  and  energy 
of  the  people  in  this  locality,  and  it  is  very  profitable. 
Peaches  are  the  leading  product,  and  they  are  wonderful 
for  flavor,  size,  and  beauty.  A  local  festival  is  "  Peach 
Day/'  when  people  come  from  all  directions  to  feast 
upon  the  free  bounty  of  Grand  Junction.  Lands  are  held 
high,  ranging  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
per  acre,  though  they  were  but  recently  public  property 
and  of  no  value  until  irrigation  facilities  had  been  pro- 
vided. The  excuse  for  these  high  prices  is  the  fact  that 
orchards  in  bearing  frequently  earn  one  hundred  and  fifty 

158 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

dollars  and  upwards  per  acre  each  year.  This  is  due  in 
part  to  the  marvellous  quality  of  the  fruit,  and  in  part 
to  the  extensive  home  markets  offered  by  mining  camps 
in  the  mountains,  and  by  large  towns  such  as  Denver, 
Pueblo,  and  Colorado  Springs.  In  view  of  the  severe 
limitations  which  nature  has  placed  upon  the  territory 
suited  to  the  highest  culture  of  delicate  fruits,  and  of  the 
steady  growth  of  the  consumers  in  mountain  districts 
and  large  towns,  there  is,  perhaps,  good  reason  to  hope 
that  profits  will  be  well  sustained  for  a  long  time  to 
come. 

These  conditions  make  the  western  slope  choice  ground 
for  settlement.  They  are  by  no  means  limited  to  the 
lower  valley  of  the  Grand,  but  exist  in  the  numerous 
smaller  districts  scattered  through  the  mountains  in  the 
western  and  southwestern  part  of  the  State.  On  the  so- 
cial side  the  possibilities  of  the  country  have  not  been 
much  developed,  as  there  has  been  a  lack  of  organized 
effort  in  settlement.  But  the  extraordinary  fertility  of 
the  soil,  the  extent  of  the  water  supply,  the  proximity  of 
mining  camps,  and  the  charm  of  the  climate  must  some- 
time combine  to  lend  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  highest 
development  of  these  favored  valleys. 

The  scenery  presents  not  merely  pictures,  but  pictures 
that  are  painted  and  tinted  and  wrought  into  fantastic 
shapes.  To  the  ever-changing  aspect  which  the  moun- 
tains, buttes,  and  mesas  gain  from  light  and  shadow,  from 
sun  and  cloud,  new  and  strange  beauties  are  added  by  the 
reds,  pinks,  yellows,  and  grays  of  soil  and  rock.  From 
the  vivid  cliffs  and  bluffs  which  stand  guard  upon  river 
banks  to  the  purple  and  shadowy  peaks  which  lift  their 
pointed  heads  on  the  utmost  horizon,  the  scene  is  one  of 

159 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

such  beauty  and  grandeur  as  may  be  felt,  though  not  de- 
scribed. 

Such  are  the  materials  of  Colorado.  Let  us  look  now 
at  the  people  and  their  civilization. 

Intense  local  patriotism  is  a  well-recognized  western 
trait,  but  in  Colorado  it  amounts  to  a  religion.  We 
have  seen  how  the  progress  of  California  was  impeded 
by  certain  elements  of  its  population  having  no  sym- 
pathy with  its  higher  ideals,  no  pride  in  its  best  achieve- 
ments. If  there  is  such  an  element  in  Colorado  it  is 
unseen  and  unfelt  in  the  larger  life  of  the  State.  The 
community  is  dominated  by  a  spirit  of  aggressive  enter- 
prise which  recognizes  no  impossibilities,  harbors  no 
doubts'  of  the  future.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
what  we  may  fairly  call — in  view  of  the  brief  time  con- 
sumed in  its  evolution  from  conditions  essentially  bar- 
baric— the  splendor  of  Colorado  civilization.  It  is  this 
which  created  Denver,  almost  the  fairest  of  American 
cities;  which  made  Colorado  Springs  the  centre  of 
wealth  and  refinement ;  which  blackened  the  sky  of  Pu- 
eblo with  the  smoke  of  a  young  Pittsburg;  which 
planted  Leadville  among  the  clouds ;  which  placed  a 
steam  ladder  against  the  dizzy  summit  of  Pike's  Peak ; 
which  carried  the  iron  highway  of  commerce  through 
gorges  and  mountain  -  passes ;  which  turned  rivers  out 
of  their  courses  that  barren  soil  might  blossom  with 
the  homes  of  men.  This  high  public  spirit  is  seen  in 
schools,  colleges,  clubs,  public  buildings,  and  improve- 
ments— above  all,  in  the  homes. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  those  who  have  taken  riches 
from  the  mines  to  invest  them  in  developing  the  Stafo's 
resources  and  in  beautifying  its  cities  and  towns.  In  this 

'iflO 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

respect  the  spirit  of  Coloradans  presents  a  sharp  con- 
trast to  that  of  many  who  grew  rich  in  California,  and 
of  most  of  those  who  received  the  enormous  wealth  coined 
from  the  resources  of  Nevada.  In  the  latter  instance 
""the  beneficiaries  of  the  mines  did  not  even  make  their 
homes  in  the  land  which  raised  them  from  poverty  to  afflu- 
ence. But  the  men  of  Colorado  have  been  proud  of 
their  devotion  to  the  commonwealth  which  they  created, 
and  have  striven  by  every  means  in  their  power  to  keep 
it  moving  along  the  upward  path.  In  the  erection  of 
fine  public  and  business  buildings  and  of  palatial  homes, 
in  the  extension  of  railroads  and  irrigation  canals,  in  the 
increase  of  banking  capital,  and,  above  all,  in  the  pursuit 
of  daring  mining  operations,  their  enterprise  has  been  un- 
equalled by  that  of  any  other  western  community.  Fore- 
most among  those  who  inaugurated  this  policy  at  the 
risk  of  their  fortunes  was  the  late  H.  A.  W.  Tabor, 
whom  Denver  and  Colorado  should  always  hold  in  grate- 
ful remembrance. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  the  picture.  The  tenden- 
cies of  Colorado  civilization  are  not  wholly  in  line  with 
the  best  ideals  of  the  arid  region.  Viewed  from  this 
stand-point,  its  institutions  are  in  a  measure  disappoint- 
ing. The  marvel  of  Denver's  growth  and  the  beauty 
of  its  homes  and  business  districts  should  not  blind  us 
to  the  fact  that  it  is  essentially  like  the  great  cities  of 
the  East.  It  is,  in  a  word,  another  case  of  "progress 
and  poverty."  The  equality  which  marked  its  early  life 
has  diminished  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  popu- 
lation and  the  increase  of  wealth.  The  rise  of  land 
values  has  made  it  more  difficult  for  the  many  to  own 
their  homes,  and  has  increased  the  wealth  of  the  land- 
L  161 


T1IE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

lord  class.  All  the  evils  which  grow  from  the  condi- 
tions of  life  in  a  large  city  are  rife  in  Denver. 

These  are  not  the  natural  economic  tendencies  of  a 
country  founded  upon  irrigation.  They  are  not  such  as 
we  have  observed  in  localities  where  irrigation  has  been 
so  nearly  the  dominant  influence  as  to  shape  institu- 
tions. The  explanation  is  found  in  the  influence  of 
mining  speculations  which,  diffused  like  the  atmos- 
phere, breed  a  cheerful  but  demoralizing  contagion : 
also  in  the  early  tendency  to  adopt  a  comparatively 
large  farm  unit.  These  two  forces  have  operated  to 
produce  very  different  results  from  those  flowing  from 
the  Mormon  land  policy,  which  we  saw  in  the  Salt  Lake 
Valley;  or  from  those  which  grew  in  consequence  of  irri- 
gation in  the  San  Bernardino  Valley  of  California.  Large 
portions  of  Colorado  are  admirably  adapted  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  best  social  conditions — of  those  condi- 
tions which  make  for  a  permanent  and  growing  body  of 
landed  proprietors;  for  the  multiplication  of  little  towns 
rather  than  a  concentration  of  people  in  congested  cen- 
tres ;  for  the  application  of  the  associative  principle  in 
connection  with  industrial  and  commercial  affairs.  It 
is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  record  that  the  latter  cur- 
rents of  thought  in  Colorado  seem  to  show  the  effects 
which  might  be  expected  to  result  from  its  environ- 
ment. 

More  and  more  the  State  asserts  its  authority  in  the 
control  of  irrigation  works  and  practice.  The  farm  unit 
grows  smaller,  and  intensive  cultivation  finds  more  fol- 
lowers. By  enormous  majorities  the  people  pronounce 
in  favor  of  party  platforms  which  demand  the  public 
ownership  of  public  utilities.  Equal  suffrage  and  the 

162 


THE    NEW    DAY    IN    COLORADO 

presence  of  women  in  the  legislature  mark  the  progres- 
sive temper  of  the  body  politic.  On  the  whole,  there  is 
much  reason  to  hope  that  the  social  achievement  of  the 
next  generation  in  Colorado  will  be  equal  to  the  material 
achievement  of  the  last. 


CHAPTER  IH 
THE  PLEASANT  LAND    OF   UTAH 

THE  industrial  system  of  the  people  who  compose 
three-fourths  of  the  population  of  Utah  has  been  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  typical  institutions  of  the 
arid  region  in  earlier  pages.  It  remains  to  speak  of  the 
physical  aspects  of  the  newest  of  American  States. 

Standing  on  the  summit  of  Capitol  Hill  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  one  may  take  in  the  entire  range  of  Utah's  re- 
sources, developed  and  undeveloped,  in  a  single  sweeping 
glance. 

At  one's  feet  lies  the  mountain  metropolis,  with  the 
stately  temple  of  native  granite  supporting  the  golden 
figure  of  the  Angel  Moroni  on  its  culminating  turret, 
and  beside  it  the  odd-roofed  tabernacle,  like  an  enormous 
turtle  basking  in  the  sun.  Below,  the  miles  of  city 
streets  stretch  southward — a  huddle  of  business  blocks 
in  the  centre ;  a  series  of  garden-homes  hidden  by  leaves 
and  blossoms  on  either  hand.  Still  farther  out  the 
generous  city  lots  expand  into  little  farms  of  ten  or 
twenty  acres,  exemplifying  the  prosperous  irrigation  in- 
dustry, which  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  commonwealth. 
Far  down  the  valley  the  smelters  send  up  their  black 
smoke  to  the  sky — emblem  of  the  mining  industry.  At 
the  lower  end  and  on  the  sides  of  the  valley  lies  an  ex- 

101 


THE    PLEASANT    LAND    OF    UTAH 

pansc  of  arid  land  in  its  natural  desert  state,  typifying 
alike  the  conditions  encountered  by  the  pioneers  and 
the  present  aspect  of  a  vast  proportion  of  Utah.  On 
the  left,  one  sees  hastening  down  the  canyon  the  roaring 
creek  which  watered  the  first  crop  ever  planted  in  these 
valleys;  on  the  right,  the  glistening  expanse  of  the 
famous  inland  sea.  And  inclosing  all,  the  mountains — 
treasure-house  of  precious  metals,  of  coal,  of  iron,  of 
timber,  and  of  the  snows  and- waters  which  fertilized  the 
desert  and  made  it  blossom  with  civilization. 

Here  in  a  single  picture  is  all  of  Utah — town  and 
country,  farm,  workshop,  mine,  shrines  of  religion,  and 
play-grounds  of  wealth  and  leisure.  If  the  human  eye 
might  look  beyond  the  brown  barriers,  which  now  inter- 
cept the  view,  to  the  very  boundaries  of  the  State, 
it  would  see  nothing  more  than  it  sees  from  Capitol 
Hill,  for  Utah  is  a  succession  of  mountains,  of  desert 
valleys,  and  of  crystal  streams,  and  scattered  over  it  all  is 
the  wealth  of  the  mine  and  the  sleeping  potentiality — 
here  and  there  partially  awakened — of  the  home,  the 
field,  the  orchard,  and  the  workshop.  It  is  a  pleasant 
and  a  sunny  land,  unforgotten  by  the  most  casual  traveller 
who  has  crossed  it  and  well  loved  by  those  who  claim  it 
as  their  home.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  feelings  of 
the  little  Utah  boy  who  tired  of  the  World's  Fair  in  a 
very  few  days  and  begged,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  to  be 
taken  back.  Asked  if  there  were  not  plenty  of  interest- 
ing sights  in  Chicago,  he  replied,  "Yes,  but  I  can't  see 
no  mountains  \" 

Utah  has  a  population  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  million. 
Though  this  is  but  one-half  as  many  as  Colorado,  and 
one-fifth  as  many  as  California,  the  new  State  approaches 

1C5 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

more  nearly  to  the  ideal  of  a  self-supporting  community 
than  either  of  its  neighbors.  The  bulk  of  its  population 
has  been  trained  in  the  policy  of  industrial  independence 
from  the  time  of  its  earliest  settlement.  We  have  seen 
how  this  was  accomplished  with  little  capital  except  that 
which  was  taken  from  the  soil.  The  fortunate  results 
may  now  be  observed  in  an  industrial  life  which  is  re- 
markably diversified  for  a  community  so  new  and  remote. 

Very  much  the  larger  portion  of  the  population  may  be 
seen  in  a  railroad  ride  of  two  hours,  from  Provo  through 
Salt  Lake  City  to  Ogden.  This  ride  takes  the  traveller 
through  Utah,  Salt  Lake,  and  Weber  valleys,  which  were 
the  first  to  be  reclaimed,  and  must  always  contain  the 
densest  population.  The  original  advantage  of  this  now 
splendid  district  was  its  abund  ant  water  supply,  ilowiug 
in  numerous  streams  from  high  mountains  near  at  hand. 
To  this  advantage  later  development  added  the  presence 
of  important  railroad  system  sand  the  proximity  of  rich 
mines  of  precious  metals.  The  growth  of  other  portions 
of  the  State,  which  must  be  large  and  constant,  can  only 
confirm  the  supremacy  of  the  communities  which  have 
grown  up  near  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  These 
are  alike  the  commercial,  political,  and  religious  centres 
of  Utah,  to  which  all  the  sources  of  material  wealth  must 
be  tributary. 

The  natural  resources  of  Utah,  as  in  the  case  of  all  the 
States  of  the  mountain  region,  are  wonderfully  diverse, 
though  in  the  infancy  of  development.  The  annual  out- 
put of  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  lead  is  now  about  ten 
million  dollars,  and  is  constantly  increasing.  The  min- 
ing industry  is  thus  a  large  contributor  to  local  wealth, 
supplying  employment  to  thousands  of  laborers,  furnish- 

ir.r, 


THE    PLEASANT    LAND    OF    UTAH 

ing  a  homo  market  for  the  products  of  the  farms,  and 
giving  constant  encouragement  to  the  extension  of  the 
railroad  system.  The  work  of  discovery  and  develop- 
ment in  new  districts  steadily  progresses,  and  the  eco- 
nomic value  of  mineral  resources  must  grow  with  every 
passing  year.  Utah  is  somewhat  deficient  in  forests 
suitable  for  timber,  but  is  abundantly  endowed  with  coal, 
iron,  and  water-power,  which  are  the  raw  materials  of 
manufacture.  The  development  of  water-power  in  con- 
nection with  electricity  has  begun  in  earnest  and  will  be 
a  factor  of  high  importance  in  the  future.  This  is  ac- 
complished by  damming  streams  which  flow  through 
mountain  canyons  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
large  towns.  This  requires  the  transmission  of  electric- 
ity for  a  distance  of  only  a  few  miles,  owing  to  the  fortu- 
nate natural  conditions.  The  State  is  also  rich  in  fine 
building  stone,  which  includes  beautiful  marble  and 
onyx. 

The  climate  of  Utah  is  that  of  the  milder  temperate 
zone,  and  during  large  portions  of  the  year  is  thoroughly 
delightful.  Ploughing  begins  earlier  than  in  eastern  lo- 
calities of  similar  latitude.  The  spring  days  are  showery 
and  windy,  but  the  first  warm  breath  of  approaching 
summer  is  usually  felt  by  the  last  of  April.  From  May 
until  November  there  is  little  rain.  The  thermometer 
climbs  high  during  the  summer  days,  but  the  heat  is  not 
oppressive,  owing  to  the  dryness  of  the  air.  Mountain 
breezes,  sweeping  down  through  the  numerous  canyons, 
make  the  nights  delightfully  cool.  In  Utah  it  is  the 
custom  to  run  irrigation  waters  through  the  streets  of 
cities  and  towns  during  the  summer,  and  the  music  of 
these  numerous  babbling  streams  is  a  pleasant  feature 

1G7 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

of  the  country,  and  apparently  of  considerable  effect  in 
mitigating  the  heat.  The  long  autumn,  extending  fre- 
quently into  December,  is  the  most  charming  season  of 
the  year.  The  winter  is  usually  brief,  but  accompanied 
by  considerable  snow  even  in  the  valleys  and  a  very 
heavy  precipitation  in  the  surrounding  mountains.  On 
still  nights  the  thermometer  sometimes  goes  well  below 
zero.  The  extreme  southern  portion  of  the  State,  loc- 
ally known  as  "Dixie,"  is  much  milder,  indeed  verg- 
ing upon  the  semi-tropical,  and  permitting  the  culture 
of  figs,  almonds,  and  English  walnuts. 

The  agricultural  industry  of  Utah  presents  some  odd 
contradictions.  It  is  more  diversified,  and  therefore 
more  completely  self-sustaining,  than  that  of  any  other 
western  State.  Farms  are  smaller  and  less  incumbered 
with  mortgages,  and  the  people  may  be  said  to  live  gen- 
erally in  easier  circumstances  than  the  occupants  of  the 
soil  in  any  other  part  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  here  that  we  find  the  best 
methods  of  irrigation  and  cultivation,  nor  of  packing  and 
marketing  the  crops.  The  high  intelligence  and  persis- 
tent effort  which  placed  certain  communities  in  Colorado 
and  California  at  the  head  of  the  list  in  their  respective 
lines  of  production  are  wanting  in  Utah.  The  fruit  pos- 
sibilities of  the  country  have  been  especially  neglected 
until  recently,  so  that  newly  settled  portions  of  Idaho 
have  easily  surpassed  Utah  localities  which  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  more  than  a  generation  in  time.  Of  late 
years  there  has  been  a  marked  improvement,  resulting 
from  a  State  Board  of  Horticulture,  from  the  influence 
of  the  Agricultural  College  at  Logan,  and  from  the  in- 
fusion of  a  considerable  element  of  new  settlers. 

168 


THE  PLEASANT  LAND  OF  UTAII 

Not  far  from  half  a  million  acres  of  irrigated  land  arc 
in  actual  cultivation,  while  nearly  twice  that  number  are 
under  canals  now  completed  or  in  process  of  construc- 
tion. Nearly  one  hundred  thousand  acres  are  cultivated 
in  grain  crops  without  irrigation.  These  are  mostly  sit- 
uated north  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  where  the  rainfall 
is  heaviest.  The  total  amount  of  cultivated  land  is, 
however,  only  about  one  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  the 
State.  According  to  the  best  local  authorities,  some- 
thing like  six  times  as  much  land  as  is  now  irrigated 
can  be  brought  under  cultivation  by  these  methods  when 
the  water  supply  is  utilized.  Here  is  a  large  field  for 
the  growth  of  population. 

The  territory  available  for  settlement  is  well  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  State.  The  country  immedi- 
ately surrounding  the  three  large  towns  of  Ogden,  Salt 
Lake,  and  Provo  is  compactly  settled,  yet  better  meth- 
ods of  utilizing  the  water  supply  will  enlarge  the  area  of 
cultivation  even  in  those  districts.  The  beautiful  coun- 
try lying  immediately  north  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  and 
watered  by  one  of  the  largest  irrigation  systems  in  the 
West,  is  still  largely  open  to  settlement.  Here  the  fruit 
industry  is  rapidly  developing  in  connection  with  gen- 
eral farming  and  stock-raising.  In  this  locality  unim- 
proved lands  sell  for  prices  ranging  from  thirty  to  fifty 
dollars  per  acre,  while  the  annual  water -rental  is  two 
dollars  and  a  half  per  acre.  The  construction  of  new 
irrigation  systems  in  the  large  deserts  south  of  the  lake, 
in  central  Utah,  has  been  actively  carried  on  during  the 
past  five  years.  Here  much  government  land  is  open  to 
entry,  but  the  settler  must  purchase  water-rights  from 
canal  companies.  This  item  of  cost  should  be  added  to 

169 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  price  of  the  land.  In  this  locality  unimproved  lands 
with  water  cost  from  ten  to  thirty  dollars  per  acre.  The 
raising  of  grain  and  hay  is  profitable  because  of  the  de- 
mand which  the  stock  industry  furnishes  for  these  pro- 
ducts, while  the  culture  of  peaches,  apricots,  apples, 
and  prunes  seems  promising.  These  fruits  have  been 
raised  successfully  for  forty  years  in  the  more  sheltered 
valleys  and  foot-hills  of  central  Utah,  and  the  later  or- 
chards are  being  gradually  extended  farther  out  upon 
the  desert. 

A  promising  region  now  almost  wholly  undeveloped  is 
the  Uinta  country,  surrounded  by  the  mountains  of  that 
name  and  lying  directly  east  of  Salt  Lake  City.  Here  a 
great  Indian  reservation  will  soon  be  opened  to  settle- 
ment, and  plans  have  already  been  made  to  reclaim  and 
colonize  the  most  attractive  parts  of  the  district.  This 
will  be  done  by  the  Mormon  methods,  which  have  been  so 
successfully  applied  throughout  the  mtermountain  re- 
gion. Settlers  will  be  organized  into  companies  con- 
structing their  own  canals  by  combined  labor  and  di- 
viding the  farms  and  village  lots  under  an  equitable 
arrangement.  Thus  the  land  will  cost  the  government 
price  of  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre,  plus  a 
certain  amount  of  labor  in  making  improvements.  The 
Uinta  country  is  rich,  not  only  in  agricultural  land,  but 
in  minerals,  timber,  building-stone,  asphalt,  and  other 
useful  resources.  It  is  now  remote  from  railroads,  but 
its  settlement  and  development  must  inevitably  lead  to 
the  construction  of  the  iron  highway.  The  deserts  in 
eastern  Utah  within  reach  of  the  Green  river,  and  in 
southern  Utah  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Colorado  and 
Virgin  rivers,  have  but  begun  to  feel  the  influence  of 

170 


THE    PLEASANT    LAND    OF    UTAH 

modern  enterprise.  The  costly  works  necessary  to  their 
reclamation  will  doubtless  come  as  the  pressure  of  settle- 
ment increases. 

Utah's  pre-eminence  in  the  land  of  irrigation  is  due  to 
historical  considerations  rather  than  to  the  excellence  of 
its  canal  systems  or  to  the  superiority  of  its  laws  and 
customs.  In  the  latter  respect  it  is  distinctly  disappoint- 
ing. The  pioneers  turned  the  water  from  the  most  con- 
venient streams  by  the  crudest  devices,  and  with  no 
thought  for  any  grand  and  enduring  scheme  of  engineer- 
ing. Canals  were  often  duplicated  many  times  over  in  a 
single  valley,  wasting  precious  water,  injuring  the  soil, 
and  unnecessarily  restricting  the  area  of  settlement.  The 
evils  of  the  irrigation  system  hastily  constructed  by  the 
pioneers  are  now  seen  and  felt ;  yet  the  early  appropri- 
ators  of  the  mountain  streams  are  so  tenacious  of  what 
they  consider  their  rights  as  to  render  the  reform  of  the 
laws,  the  reconstruction  of  canals,  and  the  readjustment 
of  irrigation  customs  to  meet  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  pressure  of  population,  extremely  difficult.  Efforts 
to  establish  a  plan  of  State  supervision  which  would  pro- 
vide for  the  measuring  of  water  and  its  just  apportion- 
ment among  irrigators — a  system  which  is  the  first  and 
last  essential  of  peace  and  progress  in  an  arid  land — have 
been  repeatedly  frustrated  by  the  unreasoning  jealousy 
of  the  older  settlers.  This  has  occurred  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  best  local  authority  asserts  that  at  least 
seventy  per  cent,  of  the  water  supply  is  wasted  under 
present  methods. 

For  fully  forty  years  Utah  irrigation  was  held  in  the 
hands  of  small  local  companies  composed  exclusively  of 
the  land-owners.  Works  were  built  by  the  common  labor 

171 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

of  the  community,  and  the  repairs  and  improvements 
made  in  the  same  way.  The  first  important  departure 
from  this  policy  came  with  the  construction  of  the  bold 
and  expensive  canals  of  the  Bear  River  Irrigation  Com- 
pany, which  have  reclaimed  a  large  area  lying  between 
the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  the  Idaho  boundary.  These 
works  also  supply  domestic  water  to  the  city  of  Ogden 
and  furnish  power  for  electrical  purposes.  The  Bear 
river  canal  is  one  of  the  most  notable  works  of  en- 
gineering in  the  United  States,  ranking  at  least  second, 
if  not  first,  among  irrigation  systems  in  this  respect. 
Not  far  from  two  million  dollars  of  eastern  and  foreign 
capital  is  invested  in  the  enterprise.  The  work  ex- 
hibits almost  every  phase  of  irrigation — engineering, 
including  canals  cut  into  solid  canyon  walls,  tun- 
nelled through  mountain  sides,  as  well  as  iron  flumes 
and  notable  diverting* dams.  Other  private  water  sys- 
tems followed  the  Bear  river  development.  The  most 
important  of  these  are  the  storage  enterprises  at 
Mount  Nebo  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sevier  lake. 
Both  of  these  utilize  the  flood  waters  of  the  Sevier 
river,  which  is  one  of  the  largest  streams  in  the 
State. 

No  other  community  in  the  West  will  deal  with  more 
interesting  irrigation  problems  in  the  future  than  Utah. 
The  conflicts  between  the  policies  of  public  and  private 
ownership  cannot  be  avoided,  since  both  are  represented 
in  systems  which  lie  side  by  side.  In  districts  where 
settlement  is  furthest  advanced  and  canal  systems  the 
oldest,  the  crying  necessity  for  the  reconstruction  of 
works  and  the  application  of  a  rigid  public  supervision 
must  soon  be  answered.  Coincident  with  the  settle- 

178 


THE    PLEASANT    LAND    OF    UTAH 

mcnt  of  these  questions  will  be  the  gradual  evolution  of 
better  agricultural  and  horticultural  methods.  The 
next  decade  will  inevitably  see  significant  developments 
in  connection  with  the  most  important  feature  of  Utah's 
economic  foundation. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   CRUDE   STRENGTH   OF   IDAHO 

Two  travellers  crossing  Idaho  on  the  same  day,  one  by 
the  Northern  Pacific  and  the  other  by  the  Oregon  Short 
Line,  would  receive  quite  opposite  impressions  of  the 
country.  The  one  who  had  traversed  its  northern  end 
would  think  of  Idaho  as  a  land  of  dense  forests  mir- 
rored in  the  surfaces  of  beautiful  lakes,  of  narrow  val- 
leys presenting  but  meagre  scope  for  agriculture,  of 
abundant  verdure,  and  of  Alpine  scenery.  These  condi- 
tions suggest  nothing  except  the  lumber-camp,  the  mine, 
and  the  stock-range. 

The  traveller  who  crossed  the  southern  part  of  the 
State,  on  the  other  hand,  would  receive  the  impression 
of  an  arid  land,  with  wide  stretches  of  valley  and  plain 
covered  with  wild  grasses  or  sage-brush,  alternating  with 
curious  formations  of  rock  and  lava.  This  traveller 
would  understand  how  a  large  agricultural  population 
may  be  maintained  by  turning  the  abundant  water  of  the 
streams  upon  the  rich  valley  soils.  Both  of  these  im- 
pressions of  the  resources  of  the  great  inland  State  of 
the  Pacific  Northwest  would  be  true,  but  either  of  them 
taken  alone,  as  is  often  done  by  travellers,  would  be 
quite  inadequate.  The  fact  is  that  Idaho,  perhaps  even 
more  than  other  localities  in  the  Far  West,  presents  a 

174 


THE    CRUDE    STRENGTH    OF    IDAHO 

marvellous  diversity  of  soil,  of  climate,  and  of  natural 
endowments.  This  diversity  must  necessarily  mark  its 
future  industrial  life  and  be  reflected  in  the  social  side 
of  its  civilization. 

The  first  important  item  in  the  material  wealth  of 
Idaho  is  its  water  supply.  Along  its  eastern  boundary 
nature  has  piled  up  towering  mountain-ranges,  which  re- 
ceive an  enormous  snowfall.  These  mountains  are  cov- 
ered with  forests,  ranking  among  the  most  magnificent 
in  the  world,  which  treasure  the  snow  within  their  som- 
bre depths  until  the  warm  weather  gradually  sends  it 
down  to  streams  which  reach  out  through  hundreds  of 
miles  of  lower  valleys.  The  great  river  of  Idaho  is  the 
Snake,  which  deserves  a  better  name  in  spite  of  its  tortu- 
ous meanderings.  This  is  the  largest  tributary  of  the 
Columbia,  and  drains  a  vast  water-shed,  beginning  in  the 
Yellowstone  Park  of  Wyoming  and  including  all  of 
southern  and  much  of  western  Idaho  with  eastern  Ore- 
gon and  Washington.  Along  its  course  it  receives  nu- 
merous minor  streams  which  drain  interior  mountain  sys- 
tems. The  Snake  is  nearly  one  thousand  miles  long  and 
so  deep  that  in  some  places  soundings  of  two  hundred 
and  forty  feet  have  failed  to  find  the  bottom.  While 
incalculably  valuable  for  irrigation,  this  is  by  no  means 
its  only  utility.  It  is  navigable  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  above  its  junction  with  Clarke's  Fork  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  State,  and  may  sometime  furnish  a 
water  route  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  through  the  Columbia. 
It  also  has  immense  possibilities  in  the  way  of  power, 
which  must  some  day  be  harnessed  to  electricity,  moving 
passengers  and  freight  through  the  valleys,  and  perhaps 
furnishing  both  light  and  heat  to  thousands  of  homes. 

175 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

The  most  marvellous  of  these  water-powers  is  furnished 
by  the  Great  Shoslionc  Falls,  in  the  south-central  por- 
tion of  the  State.  Here  is  a  waterfall  scarcely  inferior 
in  power  and  grandeur  to  Niagara,  and,  like  the  latter, 
destined  to  bo  an  important  economic  factor  in  the  re- 
gion within  its  reach.  The  abundant  water  supply  is 
by  no  means  limited  to  the  splendid  valleys  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  State.  It  is  found  in  hundreds 
of  mountain  streams  throughout  the  central  portion,  and, 
in  the  narrow  district  which  tapers  northward  to  the  Brit- 
ish Columbia  line,  is  so  marked  a  feature  of  the  land- 
scape as  to  impress  the  most  casual  observer.  Here 
Clarke's  Fork  of  the  Columbia,  draining  the  Bitter  Root 
mountains  in  western  Montana,  is  a  stream  of  noble 
proportions.  Lakes  Pend  Oreille  and  Coour  d' Alone 
are  among  the  most  notable  of  inland  waters,  both  in 
beauty  and  extent.  But  these  northern  etreams  will  not 
be  used  extensively  for  irrigation,  as  there  is  consider- 
able rainfall  and  comparatively  little  agricultural  land. 
They  are  valuable,  however,  in  connection  with  mining, 
lumbering,  and  water-power. 

The  forest  area  of  Idaho  includes  seven  million  acres, 
and  the  principal  native  trees  are  fir,  spruce  of  the 
white,  red,  and  black  varieties,  scrub  oak,  yellow  and 
white  pine,  mountain  mahogany,  juniper,  tamarack, 
birch,  cottonwood,  alder,  and  willow.  Some  of  the 
large  forest  regions,  notably  that  of  the  Pend  d'Oreillc 
in  the  north,  are  almost  unexplored,  and  constitute  the 
wildest  parts  of  the  continent.  Naturally,  a  country  so 
well  wooded  and  watered  is  the  home  of  fish  and  game 
of  the  rarest  kinds.  The  mineral  resources  are  well  dis- 
tributed and  diversified  to  the  last  degree.  The  annual 

170 


THE    CUUDE    STRENGTH    OF    IDAHO 

output  of  precious  metals  varies  from  eight  to  eighteen 
millions,  though  the  industry  is  yet  in  its  infancy. 
Base  metals,  precious  stones,  and  building  material,  in- 
cluding fine  marble,  exist  in  abundance. 

Idaho  lies  wholly  in  the  temperate  zone,  yet  its  climate 
presents  a  great  variety  of  features.  In  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  its  territory,  which  consists  of  mountains  and 
elevated  valleys,  the  winter  is  a  season  of  considerable 
severity.  Here  the  thermometer  registers  far  below 
zero,  though  the  days  are  rendered  comfortable  by  dry 
atmosphere  and  abundant  sunshine.  In  these  higher  al- 
titudes, however,  production  is  limited  to  hardy  crops, 
and  runs  largely  to  hay  and  grain,  which  finds  a  market 
in  the  mining  and  lumbering  camps  and  at  the  hands  of 
stockmen. 

Southern  and  western  Idaho  are  entirely  different  from 
the  eastern,  central,  and  northern  districts.  The  alti- 
tude ranges  from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  feet, 
and  the  climate  admits  of  the  production  of  delicate 
fruits.  In  much  of  the  Snake  River  Valley,  and  still 
more  notably  in  the  numerous  smaller  valleys  which 
open  into  it,  small  farming  and  fruit-growing  will  as- 
sume great  proportions.  Here  the  densest  population 
will  be  maintained  and  the  finest  institutions  developed. 
Typical  districts  of  this  sort  are  the  valleys  of  the  Boise, 
of  the  Payette,  and  of  the  Weiser. 

The  most  famous  product  of  these  charming  districts 
is  the  prune.  The  prunes  of  southern  Idaho  were 
awarded  the  first  prize  at  the  World's  Fair  in  1803.  Ap- 
ples are  also  a  most  profitable  crop.  Twenty-three  varie- 
ties of  Idaho  apples  surprised  the  eastern  pomologists  at 
the  Exposition.  Professor  L.  II.  Bailey,  the  horticult- 
M  177 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ural  expert  of  Cornell  University,  recorded  the  fact  that 
the  yellow  Newtown  pippin  "  is  twice  as  large  as  the  same 
apple  grown  in  the  Hudson  River  Valley"  of  New  York. 
Such  delicate  fruits  as  apricots,  peaches,  and  nectarines, 
are  successfully  grown  in  the  lower  valleys  of  southern 
Idaho. 

While  there  are  occasional  instances  of  a  temperature 
twelve  degrees  below  zero,  the  winter  in  this  part  of  the 
State  is  really  short  and  mild,  being  influenced  by  the 
Chinook  winds,  which  make  their  way  from  the  Pacific 
over  a  distance  of  five  hundred  miles.  Spring  opens  early 
and  is  apt  to  be  windy.  The  summer  temperature  is 
high,  though  the  nights  are  invariably  cool.  The  almost 
complete  absence  of  rain  between  spring  and  late  autumn 
makes  the  best  conditions  for  irrigation,  though  it  also 
involves  dry  roads  and  clouds  of  dust  when  the  wind  is 
high.  Of  the  healthfulness  of  Idaho  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  it  shows  the  smallest  percentage  of  deaths  of  any 
State  or  Territory  in  the  Union.  This  is  not  only  the 
official  record  of  the  population  as  a  whole,  but  it  is  the 
showing  of  the  army  statistics,  which  furnish  a  better 
test,  because  the  conditions  of  life  in  that  service  are  re- 
markably even  throughout  the  country. 

The  greatest  irrigation  development  has  occurred  in  the 
upper  Snake  River  Valley  in  the  neighborhood  of  Idaho 
Falls.  Here  over  four  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land 
have  been  watered  at  a  cost  of  more  than  a  million  dol- 
lars. The  chief  crops  are  grain  and  alfalfa,  the  former 
yielding  from  sixty  to  eighty  bushels,  the  latter  from 
seven  to  ten  tons  per  acre.  Land  sells  for  from  twenty  to 
fifty  dollars  per  acre  With  perpetual  water-rights.  The 
canals  are  owned  by  private  companies  and  rcp- 
178 


THE    CRUDE    STRENGTH    OF    IDAHO 

resent  eastern  capital.  Large  private  canals  have  also 
been  constructed  in  the  lower  valleys,  the  products  of 
which  have  already  been  referred  to.  These  are  in  south- 
western Idaho  near  the  border  of  Oregon.  Land  is  usually 
more  costly  here  than  in  the  upper  country,  owing  to  the 
more  favorable  climatic  conditions  and  the  better  oppor- 
tunities for  small-farming.  Prices  range  from  forty  to 
one  hundred  dollars  per  acre  as  a  rule.  Farther  down 
on  the  Snake,  in  what  is  known  as  the  "  Lewiston  Coun- 
try," land  which  has  recently  been  reclaimed  from  the 
desert  is  held  at  one  hundred  dollars  per  acre.  It  is  ex- 
pected that  a  choice  fruit  district  will  be  developed  in 
this  locality,  and  cherries  are  put  forward  as  the  favorite 
crop. 

While  the  chief  agricultural  and  horticultural  districts 
lie  along  the  Snake  river  and  its  important  tributaries, 
the  mountains  of  central  Idaho  are  full  of  picturesque, 
well-watered  valleys.  In  some  of  these  settlement  has 
been  made  for  a  generation,  and  the  products  are  sold  in 
surrounding  mining  towns  and  stock  ranches.  The  Nez 
Perce  Indian  reservation  is  also  a  fertile  and  promising 
country,  though  the  Indians  have  been  located  in  sever- 
alty  on  some  of  the  most  desirable  lands  which  would 
otherwise  be  open  to  settlers.  A  considerable  locality  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  State,  known  as  the  "Palouse 
Country,"  is  farmed  in  grain  without  irrigation.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  Gammas  Prairie,  in  one  of  the  central 
counties.  But  Idaho  is  substantially  an  arid  region, 
and  its  characteristic  institutions  are  growing  up  where 
irrigation  has  been  supplied.  The  ultimate  develop- 
ment of  its  diversified  resources  will  give  it  ;i  many-sided 
economic  life. 

179 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

"  The  Baby  State  "  is  a  title  conferred  upon  Idaho  by 
its  World's  Fair  Commissioner,  Captain  James  M.  Wells, 
in  his  official  report.  While  it  is  not  the  latest  acces- 
sion to  the  Union,  nor  the  smallest  in  population,  there 
is  a  certain  element  of  just  characterization  in  the 
name,  though  it  can  be  but  temporary.  The  impression 
which  Idaho  makes  upon  the  observer  is  that  of  crude, 
undeveloped  strength.  Utah  is  newer  to  statehood, 
Nevada  and  Wyoming  smaller  in  population,  yet  Idaho 
seems  more  like  a  lusty  infant  than  either  of  these.  It 
is  such  in  the  fact  that  its  character  is  less  fixed,  and 
that  the  current  of  population  which  is  to  make  its  en- 
during institutions  has  but  begun  to  flow  in  upon  the 
fertile  valleys  which  will  dominate  its  life,  because  of 
their  capacity  to  sustain  dense  communities. 

Already  there  have  been  four  periods  in  the  history  of 
Idaho.  The  first  was  that  of  the  explorer,  when  Lewis 
and  Clarke,  and  later  Bonneville,  came  to  look  over  the 
country  and  report  upon  its  possibilities.  The  second 
was  that  of  the  trapper,  when  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
established  its  supremacy  after  a  brief  struggle  with 
American  hunters.  The  third  was  that  of  the  mission- 
ary, who  established  the  first  feeble  beginnings  of  civ- 
ilization, then  pushed  westward  for  the  historic  conquest 
of  Oregon.  The  fourth  was  that  of  the  miner,  who 
gained  a  lasting  foothold  in  the  mountains  and  along 
the  streams.  The  fifth  era  is  now  in  progress,  and  has 
been,  after  a  fashion,  since  the  early  sixties.  This  is  the 
era  of  agricultural  settlement  and  of  town-building.  It 
amounted  to  little  until  the  railways  wore  built  across 
the  northern  and  southern  extremities  of  the  State,  and 
until  enterprise  was  attracted  by  the  possibilities  of  irriga- 

180 


THE    CRUDE    STRENGTH    OF    IDAHO 

tion.  It  is  only  in  recent  years  that  home-building,  in 
the  better  sense  of  the  term,  has  been  seriously  begun 
in  Idaho.  All  that  went  before  was  mere  adventure, 
whether  inspired  by  religious  zeal,  by  lust  of  gold,  or  by 
the  passion  for  national  conquest. 

The  most  notable  colony  yet  made  on  the  irrigated 
lands  of  Idaho  is  that  of  New  Plymouth,  in  the  Payctto 
Valley,  twelve  miles  from  the  town  of  Payette.  This 
colony,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1895  by  William  E. 
Smythe  and  Benjamin  P.  Shawhan,  was  intended  to 
represent  a  high  social  and  industrial  ideal.  The  initial 
work  of  enlisting  settlers  and  public  interest  for  the  un- 
dertaking was  done  at  Boston,  with  the  aid  of  Dr.  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale  and  other  prominent  men,  but  most 
of  the  actual  colonists  were  from  Chicago  and  the  mid- 
dle West.  The  pioneers  of  New  Plymouth,  who  repre- 
sented a  rather  unusual  quality  of  settlers,  were  drawn 
principally  from  urban  business  and  professional  life, 
yet  entered  enthusiastically  and  successfully  upon  the 
work  of  making  homes  on  sage-brush  lands  twelve  miles 
from  a  railroad,  in  a  remote  and  undeveloped  part  of 
the  West. 

The  Plymouth  industrial  programme  aimed  at  com- 
plete economic  independence  of  the  people  by  the  simple 
method  of  producing  the  variety  of  things  consumed,  on 
small,  diversified  farms  ;  of  having  surplus  products, 
principally  fruit,  for  sale  in  home  and  eastern  markets  ; 
and  by  combining  the  capital  of  the  settlers,  by  incor- 
poration of  a  stock  company,  to  own  and  develop  the 
town-site,  and  to  erect  and  operate  simple  industries  re- 
quired in  connection  with  products  of  the  soil.  On  the v 
social  side  the  plan  aimed  to  give  these  farmers  the  best 

181 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

advantages  of  town  life,  or  at  least  of  neighborhood  as- 
sociation. This  was  accomplished  by  assembling  the 
houses  in  a  central  village,  laid  out,  in  accordance  with 
a  beautiful  plan,  with  residences  grouped  on  an  out- 
side circle  touching  the  farms  at  all  points.  This  plan 
brought  the  settlers  close  together  on  acre-lots — "homo- 
acres" — thus  preventing  isolation,  and  giving  them  the 
benefit  of  school,  church,  post-office,  store,  library,  and 
entertainments. 

The  Plymouth  settlers  have  been  contented  and  pros- 
perous from  the  first,  and  have  had  less  than  the  usual 
share  of  early  trials  and  disappointments.  They  testify 
that  the  social  advantages  of  the  colony  plan,  as  com- 
pared with  the  drawbacks  of  individual  and  isolated  set- 
tlement, are  alone  sufficient  to  warrant  its  use. 

Each  of  the  early  sources  of  Idaho's  growth  left  its 
driftwood  along  the  slender  stream  of  the  State's  devel- 
opment. The  "old-timer"  is  an  influential  element  in 
its  citizenship.  Later  comers,  perhaps  forgetting  the 
distance  which  has  been  covered  since  the  days  of  the 
primeval  wilderness,  and,  in  their  impatience  for  prog- 
ress, belittling  the  hardy  heroism  which  made  it  pos- 
sible, sometimes  complain  that  the  "old-timers "are  con- 
tent to  live  in  the  memory  of  "the  early  days"  while 
contributing  little,  either  of  enthusiasm  or  capital,  to 
further  development.  The  obvious  truth  is  that  differ- 
ent classes  of  people  are  required  for  different  classes  of 
work.  If  the  men  who  filled  the  role  of  pioneers  are 
not  well  suited  by  taste  and  temperament  to  solve  the 
problems  involved  in  the  evolution  of  a  complex  indus- 
trial life,  it  is  doubtless  equally  true  that  the  element 
which  enters  enthusiastically  and  intelligently  upon  this 

182 


THE  CRUDE  STRENGTH  OF  IDAHO 

later  work  would  not  have  dealt  as  successfully  with  the 
harsher  conditions  of  thirty  years  ago.  It  is  true,  how- 
ever, that  there  are  two  well-defined  classes  in  the  citi- 
zenship of  Idaho,  and  that  they  represent  different  ways 
of  thinking.  The  steady  growth  of  population  must 
soon  give  the  supremacy  to  those  who  are  trying  to  put 
the  farm  in  the  place  of  the  desert,  to  develop  the  best 
methods  of  fruit -culture,  to  bring  the  irrigation  sys- 
tem under  rigid  public  supervision,  and  to  establish  the 
highest  standards  in  political  and  social  life. 

Boise  City,  the  capital  and  commercial  centre  of  Idaho, 
is  somewhat  smaller  than  the  chief  city  of  any  other 
western  State.  It  is  a  beautiful  town,  on  the  river  of  the 
same  name,  and  is  the  seat  of  considerable  wealth  and  of 
growing  refinement.  In  the  long  summer  season  it  is 
almost  hidden  among  its  trees,  for  the  pioneers  planted 
liberally  in  this  comfortable  home-spot  which  they  had 
prepared  for  their  old  age. 

The  business  and  public  buildings  of  Boise,  as  well  as 
many  of  its  private  residences,  are  examples  of  the  best 
modern  architecture.  The  valley  above  the  city  has 
been  reclaimed  by  irrigation  and  is  being  gradually  peo- 
pled by  small  farmers.  It  is  a  fruit  district  of  great 
promise,  and  in  time  must  become  one  of  the  most  pop- 
ulous and  beautiful  valleys  in  the  arid  region. 

The  other  important  towns  of  the  southern  part  of 
the  State  are  Idaho  Falls,  Pocatello,  Mountain  Home, 
Caldwell,  Xampa,  Payette,  and  Weiser.  Most  of  these 
are  small,  but  important  in  view  of  the  certain  develop- 
ment of  the  rich  country  which  surrounds  them.  Lewis- 
ton,  in  the  north,  lies  in  the  heart  of  a  fine  territory,  and 
is  the  trading  point  for  the  Nez  Perce  Indian  reservation. 

183 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Moscow  is  still  farther  north,  and  owes  its  prominence 
to  the  presence  of  tho  State  university.  Besides  these 
there  are  scores  of  important  mining  towns  scattered 
throughout  the  mountains,  hut  mostly  away  from  the 
railroads.  In  town-building,  as  in  the  development  of 
all  its  other  resources,  Idaho  has  barely  crossed  the 
threshold  of  its  vast  possibilities. 


CHAPTER  V 

ARID   WASHINGTON   AND    OREGON 

To  speak  of  Washington  and  Oregon  as  belonging  to 
the  arid  region  is  to  challenge  popular  belief,  which  re- 
gards these  as  lands  of  extensive  rainfall.  Even  in  the 
Far  West  it  is  customary  to  speak  of  Oregonians  as 
"  Webfeet,"  on  account  of  the  dampness  of  their  cli- 
mate. The  fact  is  that  there  is  rain  enough  in  Oregon, 
as  there  is  wealth  enough  in  New  York,  but  that  it  is 
not  well  distributed. 

The  annual  precipitation  along  the  coast  of  these 
States  ranges  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 
inches,  and  is  the  heaviest  in  the  United  States.  In 
the  Pngct  Sound  region,  which  is  cut  off  from  the  coast- 
line by  a  range  of  mountains,  the  rainfall  is  less,  but 
still  so  heavy  as  to  make  the  climate  distinctly  humid. 
The  bulk  of  settlement  has  been  in  the  extreme  west, 
and  this  fact  accounts  for  the  reputation  of  the  country 
as  one  of  excessive  rainfall.  Nevertheless,  about  two- 
thirds  of  these  great  States  belong  indisputably  to  the 
arid  region,  and  can  only  sustain  a  dense  population 
with  the  aid  of  irrigation.  The  singular  contrast  pre- 
sented by  such  marked  climatic  differences  is  due  to  the 
Cascade  mountains,  which  form  a  barrier  running  north 
and  south,  intercepting  the  moisture  from  the  Pacific 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Ocean  and  decreeing  that  the  western  third  of  these 
States  shall  have  too  much  rain,,  while  the  eastern  two- 
thirds  shall  have  too  little. 

The  humid  coast  region  is  comparatively  well  settled 
and  in  a  condition  of  flourishing  development.  Port- 
land, one  of  the  most  substantial  of  American  cities,  is 
sustained  by  the  trade  of  the  interior,  by  manufactures 
using  the  power  of  the  Willamette  river,  and  by  a 
growing  commerce  moved  by  railroads  and  shipping. 
The  cities  of  Puget  Sound  are  younger  and  less  firmly 
established.  While  it  is  impossible  that  all  of  them 
shall  realize  their  early  dreams  of  greatness,  Seattle  and 
Tacoma  have  passed  beyond  the  period  of  doubt,  and 
are  clearly  destined  to  be  populous  and  powerful.  The 
Washington  coast  is  marvellously  rich  in  forests,  which 
creep  down  to  the  very  edge  of  the  Sound,  and  in  other 
forms  of  natural  wealth  which  will  contribute  to  the  up- 
building of  manufactures  and  commerce.  The  growth 
of  centres  of  population  between  the  Cascades  and  the 
sea  will  have  an  important  relation  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  much  larger  regions  east  of  the  mountains. 

Not  all  of  eastern  Washington  is  worthless  for  agricult- 
ure without  irrigation.  Large  areas  of  rolling  land  are 
farmed  in  wheat  by  dependence  upon  the  rainfall.  The 
Big  Bend  and  the  Palousc  countries  are  notable  districts 
of  this  kind.  The  high,  rolling,  bunch-grass  hills  on  the 
western  side  of  the  Columbia  are  so  well  adapted  for 
grazing  as  to  be  locally  known  as  the  "Horse -heaven 
Country."  Along  the  northern  line,  running  easterly  to 
Idaho  and  covering  a  broad  belt  of  territory,  are  rich 
mineral  and  forest  areas.  But  the  future  of  eastern 

186 


ARID  WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON 

Washington,  us  a  whole,  hinges  on  the  irrigation  indus- 
try. This  will  be  the  dependence  for  the  support  of  a 
dense  population,  and  will  have  an  important  bearing  on 
the  development  of  other  resources. 

The  most  important  tracts  of  arid  land  lie  in  the 
central  part  of  the  State.  Perhaps  no  other  locality  in 
the  arid  region  of  the  West  is  so  abundantly  watered  or 
so  richly  favored  in  natural  navigation  facilities,  though 
rivers  must  be  improved  before  they  can  reach  their  high- 
est utility.  The  Columbia  river,  the  Yakima,  the  Snake, 
and  the  Wenatchee  are  the  principal  sources  of  water 
supply,  though  these  have  numerous  valuable  tribu- 
taries. The  irrigable  district  is  inclosed  between  the 
Cascade  and  Bitter  Root  ranges,  and  the  drainage  from 
these  high  mountains  furnishes  more  water  than  can  ever 
be  used  to  advantage. 

The  most  important  irrigation  development  thus  far 
accomplished  is  in  the  Yakima  Valley.  Here  there  are 
nearly  four  hundred  miles  of  canals,  some  of  them  very 
large.  The  towns  of  North  Yakima,  Prosser,  and  Ellens- 
burg  are  the  chief  points  in  the  irrigated  portions  of  the 
valley.  A  number  of  canals  have  been  constructed  along 
the  Wenatchee  river,  and  a  promising  development  has 
been  begun  on  the  plains  of  the  Columbia,  near  its 
junction  with  the  Snake,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Keime- 
wick  and  Pasco.  A  good  beginning  has  also  been  made 
on  the  Walla  Walla  river  near  the  Oregon  boundary, 
and  on  the  Snake  river  at  the  point  where  it  flows  out 
of  Idaho  into  the  Lewiston  country.  For  long  dis- 
tances both  the  Columbia  and  Snake  flow  through 
deep  channels,  so  that  their  abundant  supplies  can 
be  utilized  only  by  pumping.  As  yet  this  has  not 

187 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

been  extensively  done,  but  doubtless  will  be  in  the 
future. 

The  soil  of  arid  "Washington  is  generally  a  light,  sandy 
loam,  or  volcanic  ash.  Some  portions  of  the  river-bot- 
toms have  extensive  tracts  of  dark  alluvial  soil,  while  in 
other  portions  the  soil  is  so  sandy  as  to  drift  before  the 
wind.  While  alkali  is  frequently  encountered  in  small 
spots,  the  soil  as  a  whole  may  be  described  as  free  of  both 
alkali  and  clay.  Its  depth  and  texture  are  such  as  to  in- 
sure good  drainage,  which  is  essential  in  connection  with 
irrigation.  Rich  in  potash,  lime,  and  phosphoric  acid, 
the  soil  should  prove  enduring,  as  it  has  already  proven 
extremely  productive. 

The  climate  is  mild,  though  distinctly  of  the  temperate 
zone.  The  temperature  sometimes  goes  as  high  as  108° 
in  summer  days,  and  as  low  as  zero  in  winter  nights  ;  yet 
the  climate  is  not  severe,  in  spite  of  these  figures.  The 
rainfall  varies  in  different  localities.  On  the  sage-brush 
plains  of  the  Columbia  it  averages  only  about  six  inches, 
which  is  less  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  United  States 
except  the  extreme  Southwest.  The  resulting  dryness 
robs  the  summer  heat  and  the  winter  cold  of  their  worst 
effects.  In  the  warmer  part  of  the  region  snow  falls 
rarely  and  seldom  remains  on  the  ground  more  than 
two  or  three  days.  Along  the  Columbia  river  ploughing 
can  be  done  almost  continuous!}7,  while  at  the  higher 
elevations  it  is  suspended  from  the  middle  of  November 
to  the  middle  of  February.  Cyclones,  tornadoes,  and 
blizzards  are  entirely  unknown,  and  the  frequent  thun- 
der-storms are  so  gentle  as  hardly  to  deserve  the  name. 
There  is  more  or  less  wind  at  all  seasons  of  the  year. 
This  is  frequently  strong  enough  to  raise  considerable 

188 


ARTESIAN   WELT,   AT   ZILLAH,  WASHINGTON 


ARID  WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON 

dust  during  the  dry  season,  and  wind  and  dust  constitute 
the  disagreeable  features  of  an  otherwise  delightful  cli- 
mate. There  is  probably  no  healthier  region,  nor  one 
better  adapted  to  people  suffering  with  throat  and  lung 
troubles,  than  arid  Washington. 

The  products  comprise  everything  that  grows  in  the 
temperate  zone,  including  the  tender  fruits,  which  are 
here  of  great  beauty  and  high  flavor.  The  localities 
where  the  Yakima,  Snake,  and  Wenatchee  rivers  empty 
into  the  Columbia  furnish  the  earliest  products,  the  sea- 
son being  fully  a  month  more  advanced  than  in  the 
humid  parts  of  the  State.  For  this  reason  rare  oppor- 
tunities are  offered  in  the  way  of  market-gardening, 
which  is  an  important  consideration,  as  enabling  settlers 
to  obtain  an  income  before  their  trees  come  into  bearing. 

The  markets  open  to  the  small  farmers  who  settle  upon 
the  irrigated  lands  of  eastern  Washington  are  extremely 
fortunate.  They  include  the  rich  and  growing  mining 
districts  of  northern  Idaho,  of  Montana,  and  of  British 
Columbia,  as  well  as  home  markets  in  the  northern  and 
western  parts  of  the  State.  Nature  has  rather  severely 
limited  the  district  which  can  produce  the  early  fruits, 
small  fruits,  and  vegetables,  while  these  mining  regions 
must  always  be  large  consumers,  and  can  never  hope  to 
supply  themselves  with  early  products.  The  improve- 
ment of  railroad  facilities  will  enhance  these  advantages. 
Strawberries,  raspberries,  cherries,  pears,  peaches,  prunes, 
and  apples,  as  well  as  all  vegetables,  find  ready  sale  at 
high  prices  in  these  markets.  The  dairy  .industry  is  also 
profitable. 

Settlement  on  the  irrigated  lands  of  eastern  Wash  ing- 
ton  has  only  begun,  and  is  still  far  behind  canal-build- 

189 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ing.  Lack  of  industrial  organization  has  hindered  the 
prosperity  of  those  who  have  come,  and  this  in  turn  has 
discouraged  further  settlement.  Land  prices  range  from 
thirty  to  one  hundred  dollars  per  acre,  with  water-rights. 
The  smaller  and  earlier  canals  were  built  by  co-operative 
enterprise,  but  the  larger  and  later  ones  represent  invest- 
ments of  eastern  and  foreign  capital.  A  beginning  has 
been  made  in  the  construction  of  public  works  by  means 
of  the  formation  of  irrigation  districts  under  the  State 
law. 

The  most  important  city  in  eastern  Washington  is  Spo- 
kane, which  lies  near  the  border  of  Idaho.  This  is  sus- 
tained by  surrounding  districts  devoted  to  wheat-raising, 
mining,  lumbering,  and  stock  industry.  The  fall  in  the 
price  of  grain  and  horses  has  been  a  severe  blow  to  the 
producers,  and  marks  a  transition  stage  in  the  life  of 
the  State.  It  will  lead  to  the  extension  of  irrigation,  of 
small  farms,  of  diversified  production,  and  of  co-opera- 
tive industries.  There  is  no  more  promising  field  for 
the  application  of  the  most  enlightened  methods  of  colo- 
nization than  that  offered  by  the  rich  and  well-watered 
valleys  of  arid  Washington. 

Arid  Oregon  includes  two-thirds  of  the  State,  and  re- 
sembles its  northern  neighbor  in  many  respects.  It  is 
less  generously  endowed  with  water  supplies,  and  has 
been  less  fortunate  in  interesting  capital  in  the  construc- 
tion of  large  irrigation  works.  There  are,  however,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  irrigated  land  in 
eastern  Oregon,  rind  it  is  estimated  that  this  amount  can 
be  multiplied  from  ten  to  twenty  times.  The  country  is 
but  sparsely  settled,  and  has  been  mostly  devoted  to 

190 


ARID  WASHINGTON  AND  OREGON 

wheat  and  stock.  The  climate  varies  with  the  altitude, 
and  is  similar  to  that  of  Washington  and  the  lower  parts 
of  Idaho.  The  rainfall  is  about  fifteen  inches,  which  is 
not  more  than  half  enough  for  profitable  agriculture. 
There  are  no  great  extremes  of  either  heat  or  cold. 

The  products  are  practically  the  same  as  those  of 
Washington,  except  that  the  earliest  vegetables  and 
small  fruits  are  more  successfully  cultivated  in  the  low 
valleys  of  the  latter.  Small-fanning  and  fruit-culture 
are  successfully  pursued  wherever  irrigation  is  provided. 
Indeed,  the  contrast  with  the  prosperity  of  those  who 
operate  large  farms  in  grain  is  very  striking. 

The  writer  recalls  an  experience  in  point.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  rode  for  hoars  through  miles  of  farms  devoted 
exclusively  to  wheat,  which  was  raised  at  a  loss,  the 
proprietors  generally  going  into  debt  for  vegetables, 
poultry,  and  even  dairy  products,  at  the  stores  in  the 
county  seat.  Then  at  Pendleton,  on  the  same  day,  he 
inspected  a  little  patch  of  irrigated  ground — only  three- 
quarters  of  an  acre  in  size — which  furnished  a  family 
with  vegetables  and  small  fruits,  together  with  a  sur- 
plus to  be  disposed  of  at  the  store  and  sold  again  to  the 
thriftless  farmers  who  raised  only  wheat.  Hero  was  a 
single  cherry-tree,  the  product  of  which  sold  in  the  mar- 
ket for  exactly  the  same  price  as  the  product  of  five  acres 
of  wheat!  Ten  or  twenty  acres  of  irrigated  land  in  east- 
ern Oregon  are  more  valuable  than  twenty  times  as  much 
farmed  in  grain  and  sold  at  the  prices  prevailing  during 
the  past  few  years.  The  little  farm  furnishes  a  certain 
living,  with  a  prospect  of  something  more  ;  the  large 
farm  means  drudgery,  debt,  and  very  often  ruin.  Tin-so 
economic  facts  having  been  clearly  demonstrated  to  Ore- 

191 


TUB    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

gonians  in  recent  years,  irrigation  has  become  an  impor- 
tant interest. 

The  State  Commission,  in  its  report  to  the  National 
Irrigation  Congress  of  1894,  made  a  careful  estimate  of 
the  water  resources  of  eastern  Oregon.  It  was  found 
that  in  the  extreme  southwestern  part  of  the  arid  dis- 
trict, bordering  the  Cascade  mountains,  half  a  million 
acres  could  be  watered  by  using  supplies  impounded  in 
natural  lakes,  the  most  important  of  which  are  Upper 
and  Lower  Klamath,  Summer,  Albert,  Warner,  Goose, 
and  Silver  lakes.  In  the  southeastern  part  of  the  State 
forty  thousand  acres  are  already  commanded  by  sixteen 
irrigation  canals.  It  was  estimated  that  the  irrigable 
area  could  be  increased  as  follows  :  In  the  Snake  River 
Valley,  two  hundred  thousand  acres;  in  the  Malhuer 
River  Valley,  two  hundred  thousand  acres  ;  in  the  Wil- 
low Creek  Valley,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres ; 
in  Bully  Creek  Valley,  fifty  thousand  acres ;  and  in  nu- 
merous other  valleys,  fifteen  thousand  acres.  It  would 
be  necessary,  however,  to  make  provision  for  the  storage 
of  water  to  effect  this  result. 

The  Umatilla  river  in  northern  Oregon  is  one  of  the 
large  tributaries  of  the  Columbia.  Here  irrigation  en- 
terprise has  been  so  active  that  at  times  more  than  the 
total  flow  of  the  stream  has  been  appropriated.  As  yet 
most  of  the  projected  works  have  not  been  built,  owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  interesting  capital  during  the  hard 
times.  The  region  is  fertile  and  picturesque,  well  sup- 
plied with  railroad  outlets,  and  certain  to  be  benefited  in 
time  by  improvements  which  will  render  the  Columbia 
river  navigable  to  the  sea.  A  large  area  can  be  brought 
under  irrigation,  and  the  district  seems  likely  to  be  the 

192 


ARID    WASHINGTON    AND    OREGON 

scene  of  the  earliest  colonization  efforts.  Still  farther 
west  is  the  region  watered  by  the  Des  Chutes  and  John 
Day  rivers.  Here  an  area  of  two  hundred  miles  hi  ex- 
tent is  susceptible  of  irrigation.  The  Hood  river  flows 
through  a  country  which  is  not  entirely  arid,  but  which 
would  be  much  improved  by  irrigation.  The  waters  of 
this  stream  are  likely  to  be  turned  upon  the  land  during 
the  next  few  years.  Indeed,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
irrigation  industry  will  be  extended  to  the  higher  valleys 
on  the  western  slope,  since  the  process  has  already  begun 
in  a  small  way  in  the  valleys  of  the  Rogue  and  Willamette. 
The  irrigation  systems  already  in  operation  in  eastern 
Oregon  are  generally  applied  chiefly  to  bottom  and  low- 
lying  lands  immediately  adjacent  to  the  streams.  Where 
canals  are  extensive  they  are  used  for  the  production  of 
hay  and  grain  as  an  adjunct  to  stock-raising.  There  are 
a  sufficient  number  of  orchards  and  small  farms  to  de- 
monstrate the  possibilities  in  this  direction,  but  for  the 
most  part  eastern  Oregon  is  undeveloped.  It  is  within 
bounds  to  say  that  it  can  readily  make  homes  for  a  mill- 
ion people  when  irrigation  is  applied  to  the  best  advan- 
tage. The  first  impulse  of  a  new  era  had  begun  to  be  felt 
in  1890,  and  rose  rapidly  until  the  panic  of  1893.  This 
impulse  must  again  assert  itself  powerfully,  and  it  seems 
not  unlikely  that  this  will  happen  during  the  next  few 
years. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE   POTENTIAL   GREATNESS   OF   NEVADA 

No  other  State  has  been  so  bitterly  derided  as  Nevada. 
It  has  been  asserted  that  the  silver  mines  which  made  it 
all  it  was  are  exhausted;  that  it  has  no  other  mineral 
wealth ;  that  it  has  no  agricultural  resources  ;  that  it  has 
nothing  to  attract  people,  and  that  as  a  consequence  it  is 
"flickering  out."  These  statements  have  found  wide 
acceptance,  and  as  a  result  newspapers  and  public  men 
have  seriously  discussed  propositions  to  deprive  Nevada 
of  its  Senators,  or  to  merge  it  into  Utah,  or  otherwise  to 
degrade  it  from  its  present  place  of  statehood. 

All  these  charges  are  untrue.  Potentially,  Nevada  is 
one  of  the  greatest  States  in  the  Union.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  name  one  commonwealth  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi river  which  surpasses  it  in  physical  endowments, 
and  it  even  ranks  well  in  this  respect  among  the  other 
States  of  the  Far  "West,  which  it  resembles  in  climate, 
soil,  and  variety  of  resources.  It  is  true  that  Nevada  has 
lost  population  since  the  decline  of  the  great  excitement 
on  the  Cornstock  lode,  but  it  is  not  true  that  this  decline 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  State  has  not  the  raw  materials 
of  a  rich,  populous,  and  powerful  community.  The 
proper  prescription  for  the  economic  ills  of  Nevada  is  not 
degradation,  but  development. 

194 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

The  silver  mines  which  chiefly  contributed  to  its  pros- 
perity in  the  past  were  principally  those  of  the  famous 
Comstock  lode,  which  produced  more  than  $500,000,000 
in  precious  metals  ;  of  Eureka,  $125,000,000  ;  of  Austin, 
§30,000,000 ;  of  Lincoln  county,  830,000,000  ;  of  Esmer- 
aida  county,  $20,000,000 ;  of  Elko  county,  $10,000,000. 
There  were  many  other  camps  of  lesser  moment. 

Now,  it  is  perfectly  true  that  the  extraction  of  such 
vast  amounts  wrought  material  changes  in  the  character 
of  some  of  these  mines,  notably  of  the  Comstock.  It  by 
no  means  follows,  however,  that  the  deposits  of  ore  have 
been  "exhausted."  The  richer  ores  were  utilized  at  a 
time  when  silver  commanded  a  high  price  and  when 
economy  in  milling  was  not  important.  But  it  may  be 
asserted  upon  the  best  authority  that  even  the  mines  of  the 
Comstock,  some  of  which  have  been  worked  to  a  depth  of 
three  thousand  feet,  possess  wellnigh  unlimited  quanti- 
ties of  ore  running  from  $6  to  $15  per  ton,  and  that  un- 
der more  favorable  conditions  for  silver  mining  the  fa- 
mous lode  would  perhaps  duplicate  its  peerless  record  of 
the  past.  It  is  not  likely  that  fabulous  profits  will  ever 
again  be  realized.  It  is  certainly  not  to  be  desired  that 
the  old  romance  of  life  in  Virginia  City,  with  its  hot 
fever  of  speculation,  its  glittering  successes,  and  its  tragic 
disappointments,  should  be  repeated.  But  though  the 
bonanza  days  are  of  the  past,  the  better  days  of  sober 
industrial  development  are  of  the  future.  This  state- 
ment applies  yet  more  forcibly  to  other  old  camps. 

With  few  exceptions,  deep-mining  has  not  been  pur- 
sued. Only  the  richer  ores  near  the  surface  have  been 
utilized,  and  these  by  expensive  processes  and  at  high 
cost  of  transportation.  Eureka,  Austin  and  Tuscarora, 

195 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

and  the  districts  in  Lincoln  and  Esmeralda  counties — 
all  great  producers  in  the  past — are  yet  rich  in  silver  ore 
averaging  $8  to  $20  per  ton.  Not  only  are  the  old  camps 
far  from  "  exhausted/'  but  the  undeveloped  resources  in 
this  direction  are  far  from  explored.  It  is  not  denied 
by  any  one  that  admittedly  great  silver  camps  in  Utah, 
in  Colorado,  in  Idaho,  and  in  Montana,  have  been  com- 
pelled to  cease  operation  partially  or  completely  as  a 
result  of  the  depression  of  prices.  The  same  is  true  of 
Nevada,  but  she  also  labors  under  peculiar  disadvantages 
in  the  lack  of  transportation  facilities.  In  the  extreme 
southern  counties  mines  have  to  ship  ore  to  the  reduc- 
tion works  at  Salt  Lake  City  at  a  cost  of  $15  per  ton. 
There  are  other  localities  where  the  transportation 
charge  ranges  from  $20  to  $100  per  ton,  and  where  great 
ore  bodies  carrying  $30  to  $60  per  ton  in  precious 
metals  lie  unworked  in  consequence.  The  prostration 
of  the  silver  industry  in  Nevada  is  due  to  a  number  of 
causes,  but  the  fact  that  the  "  silver  mines  which  made 
her  all  she  was  have  been  exhausted  "  is  not  one  of  them, 
since  it  exists  only  in  the  imagination  of  those  who  know 
not  whereof  they  speak. 

The  statement  that  Nevada  "has  no  other  mineral 
wealth  "  is  equally  wide  of  the  truth.  The  actual  extent 
and  value  of  such  resources  in  any  country  cannot  bo 
known  in  advance  of  thorough  development,  but  the 
amazing  variety  of  Nevada's  natural  endowments  is  a 
fact  which  no  well-informed  person  ventures  to  dispute. 
Calling  the  roll  of  the  fourteen  counties,  we  may  see 
that  nearly  all  answer  to  the  truth  of  this  claim. 

Eiko,  in  the  extreme  northeastern  corner  of  the  State, 
where  the  railroad  traveller  enters  from  Utah,  yielded 

196 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

placer-gold  to  the  earliest  prospectors  of  the  Great  Basin, 
and  has  gold  ledges  of  promising  extent  and  value  which 
are  now  being  carefully  explored.  Ilumboldt,  central 
on  the  northern  boundary,  presents  as  great  a  variety  of 
resources  as  any  district  in  the  United  States.  Besides 
silver,  it  possesses  gold,  copper,  lead,  tin,  iron,  anti- 
mony, nickel,  cobalt,  bismuth,  nitre,  sulphur,  gypsum, 
borax,  soda,  and  salt.  Coarse  gold  to  the  value  of  sev- 
eral millions  has  been  taken  from  its  placer  and  gravel 
mines.  Gypsum  is  shipped  to  San  Francisco  for  fertil- 
izer. Near  Lovelock,  in  this  county,  are  great  hills  of 
fine  bessemer  iron  ore,  yielding  eighty-six  per  cent,  of  iron 
and  twelve  per  cent,  of  aluminum,  with  no  trace  of  im- 
purities. Eureka  county,  in  the  central  part  of  the  State, 
has  many  mines  in  which  gold  predominates,  besides  largo 
deposits  of  magnetic  iron  ore,  of  lead,  of  granite  and 
other  building  stones.  Lander,  adjoining  Eureka  on 
the  west,  has  valuable  undeveloped  gold  deposits  and 
the  richest  mines  of  antimony  in  the  world.  Of  the 
western  counties,  Washoe  reports  recent  discoveries  of 
gold,  copper,  and  iron  ;  Douglas,  quartz  and  placer-gold  ; 
Lyon,  mines  which  run  high  in  gold,  with  but  little  sil- 
ver; Churchill,  gold,  copper,  and  other  minerals;  while 
Storey  contains  the  Comstock.  Esmeralda,  bordering 
California  on  the  extreme  southwest,  is  very  rich  in 
gold  -  bearing  quartz,  and  is  being  actively  developed. 
Lincoln  and  Nye,  the  two  great  counties  of  the  south, 
have  gold,  copper,  lead,  antimony,  zinc,  quicksilver, 
fire-clay,  chalk,  soapstone,  borax,  and  alum.  In  Lin- 
coln there  is  a  deposit  of  zinc,  estimated  to  be  worth 
several  millions,  which  cannot  be  worked  because  of  lack 
of  transportation  facilities.  There  are  hills  of  salt,  the 

197 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

product  of  which  commands  locally  but  81  per  ton,,  owing 
to  its  inaccessibility,  though  other  localities  in  the  State 
pay  $20  to  840  per  ton  for  a  similar  product.  White 
Pine  county,  along  the  eastern  boundary,  has  extensive 
gold  placers. 

Finally,  there  is  a  large  deposit  in  Elko  county  of 
something  which  is  said  never  to  have  been  discovered 
elsewhere — mineral  soap,  superior  in  cleansing  virtues  to 
any  of  the  manufactured  varieties  known  to  the  students 
of  modern  advertising.  As  the  country  was  principally 
occupied  by  Pinto  Indians,  the  deposit  remained  undis- 
turbed for  nameless  centuries.  But  it  was  exhibited  at 
the  World's  Fair,  where,  it  is  feared,  it  added  nothing 
to  Nevada's  fame.  The  thing  was  so  palpably  and  un- 
mistakably the  perfection  of  toilet  articles  that  it  over- 
taxed eastern  credulity,  and  was  quietly  set  down  as  a 
larger  piece  of  mendacity  than  of  soap. 

It  is  further  charged  that  Nevada  "  has  no  agricultural 
resources."  Of  all  arraignments,  this  is  the  most  mis- 
taken and  unjust,  yet  it  is  the  one  which  will  find  readi- 
est credence  by  those  who  know  the  State  only  through 
the  experience  of  a  restless  day's  travel  by  railroad  across 
its  waste  of  sage-brush,  of  sunshine,  and  of  dust.  The 
more  need,  then,  for  its  emphatic  refutation,  for  there 
are  millions  of  Nevada  acres  which  might  answer  the  cry 
of  thousands  of  homeless  num. 

The  territorial  grandeur  of  the  battle-born  common- 
wealth is  not  a  matter  of  dispute.  In  the  East  it  would 
lill  a  space  from  central  Pennsylvania  to  (icorgia,  and 
from  Delaware  Bay  to  Ohio.  But  as  Nevada  is  very  arid, 
having  but  ten  inches  of  rainfall,  and  but  little  of  that  in 
the  growing  season,  the  extent  of  the  water  supply  is  tho 

198 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

measure  of  its  capacity  to  support  population.  Upon 
the  all  -  important  subject  of  the  water  supply  of  an 
arid  and  half-explored  country  authorities  seldom  agree. 
They  cannot  do  so  in  advance  of  thorough  scientific  in- 
vestigation, especially  where  the  dependence  is  largely 
upon  flood  waters,  springs,  and  artesian  wells.  But  the 
most  painstaking  and  systematic  inquiry  ever  made  into 
this  branch  of  Nevada's  resources  resulted  in  the  con- 
clusion that  at  least  six  million  acres  of  rich  soil  could 
be  irrigated. 

Such  was  the  report  of  a  State  Commission,  appointed 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Irrigation  Congress  in  1893,  of 
which  the  late  Governor  John  E.  Jones  was  chairman 
and  L.  E.  Taylor,  C.  E.,  secretary.  The  material  for 
the  report  was  gathered  with  the  assistance  of  sub -com- 
mittees in  every  county,  and  the  conclusions  undoubt- 
edly represent  the  best  judgment  of  practical  men  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  subject  in  its  local  details. 
The  estimate  is  based  on  the  use  of  storage  reservoirs 
and  the  development  of  springs  and  artesian  basins,  as 
well  as  upon  the  surface  supplies  more  readily  to  be  cal- 
culated. The  commission  reported  twenty  lakes  and 
sixteen  rivers  of  importance.  Of  the  utility  of  the  lat- 
ter, it  said  that  the  Carson,  Walker,  and  Truckee,  flow- 
ing eastward  from  the  Sierras,  would  irrigate  in  Nevada 
one  million  acres ;  the  Humboldt,  another  million  ;  the 
Salmon,  Bruneau,  and  Owyhee,  in  the  extreme  north- 
east, four  hundred  thousand ;  the  Quinn,  which  de- 
scends from  its  Oregon  sources  into  Nevada,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  thousand ;  the  Virgin,  on  the  ex- 
treme southeast,  one  hundred  thousand.  Minor  rivers 
and  a  multitude  of  flowing  springs  were  counted  availa- 

199 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ble  for  the  reclamation  of  two  million  four  hundred 
thousand  acres,  while  the  artesian  supplies  were  relied 
upon  to  bring  the  total  for  the  State  to  at  least  six 
million  acres. 

The  authors  of  these  conclusions,  among  the  most  re- 
sponsible men  in  the  State,  declare  them  to  be  well  within 
the  bounds  of  conservatism.  For  the  present  purpose, 
however,  the  figures  may  be  reduced  two-thirds,  and 
still  leave  an  ample  foundation  for  population  in  Nevada. 
Two  States  which  no  one  dreams  of  expelling  from  the 
Union  are  Colorado  and  Utah.  The  splendid  agricult- 
ural prosperity  of  those  arid  commonwealths  is  based 
on  a  cultivated  area  of  only  about  two  million  acres. 
There  is  no  excuse  for  assuming  that  with  a  reasonable 
development  of  her  resources,  mineral  and  manufactur- 
ing as  well  as  agricultural,  Nevada  could  not  sustain  at 
least  as  many  people  as  do  Utah  and  Colorado  in  their 
present  condition  of  partial  development.  Neither  of 
those  States  has  begun  to  approach  the  full  realization 
of  its  possibilities,  though  even  now  they  maintain  a 
combined  population  of  about  throe-quarters  of  a  million. 
This  figure  is  a  low  estimate  of  Nevada's  capa^ty  in 
that  direction. 

The  products  of  the  irrigated  lands  of  Nevada  are  the 
fruits,  vegetables,  cereals,  and  grasses  of  the  temperate 
zone,  and,  in  the  extreme  southern  portions,  the  more 
delicate  fruits  of  the  semi-tropics.  Average  crops  arc 
thirty-five  bushels  of  wheat  per  aero,  sixty  bushels  of 
barley,  seventy-five  bushels  of  oats,  three  hundred  bush- 
els of  potatoes,  and  four  to  eight  tons  of  alfalfa,  which  is 
the  leading  forage  grass.  In  the  extreme  southern  coun- 
ties, where  the  altitude  is  but  four  hundred  feet  above 

200 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

sea-level,  and  whore  the  warm  breath  of  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia is  received  through  the  canyons  of  the  Colorado 
river,  figs,  olives,  pomegranates,  almonds,  English  wal- 
nuts, and,  in  sheltered  places,  even  oranges,  may  be  pro- 
duced, according  to  the  testimony  of  old  residents.  The 
climate  of  Nevada,  as  the  products  would  indicate,  covers 
a  wide  range.  Like  all  parts  of  the  arid  region,  it  is  dis- 
tinguished by  pure,  dry  air,  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
sunshine,  and  consequently  a  very  high  degree  of  healtli- 
fuluess.  It  is  a  climate  fit  to  breed  a  robust  and  vigor- 
ous race. 

These  are  not  the  popular  impressions  of  Nevada,  but 
the  traveller  who  has  left  his  hot  and  dusty  car  to  breathe 
the  cool  fragrance  of  the  little  oasis  at  Humboldt,  to 
walk  for  a  few  moments  within  the  shade  of  its  trees, 
and  to  hear  the  music  of  its  waters,  should  not  hesitate 
to  accept  them  as  true.  The  little  patch  of  green  which 
a  hill-side  spring  has  spoken  into  being  here  is  a  sample 
of  what  millions  of  desert  acres  will  become.  Farther 
on  the  traveller  catches  a  twilight  glimpse  of  the  thriv- 
ing farms  of  Lovelock  or  of  the  green  Truckee  mead- 
ows. But  the  larger  examples  of  irrigation  lie  off  the 
beaten  path.  Such  an  instance  is  the  Carson  Valley, 
hidden  between  the  sheltering  shoulders  of  the  Sierras. 
To  appreciate  the  possibilities  of  this  derided  State,  the 
critic  should  visit  that  valley  in  the  perfect  Nevada 
spring-time,  and  look  upon  its  farms,  its  homes,  and  its 
villages.  There  he  would  behold  a  memorable  picture  of 
thrift,  of  beauty,  and  of  peace,  from  the  white  blossoms 
in  the  door-yards  to  the  white  summits  of  the  mountains. 
And  there  he  might  read  the  true  prophecy  of  Nevada's 
future. 

201 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

If,  then,  this  State  is  ''flickering  out,"  it  is  emphati- 
cally not  due  to  the  fact  that  it  "has  nothing  to  attract 
people."  Resembling  Utah  and,  less  closely,  Colorado 
in  climate  and  resources,  there  are  reasons  which  account 
for  its  poverty  of  population  and  backwardness  of  devel- 
opment in  comparison  with  those  growing  States.  It  is, 
perhaps,  worth  while  briefly  to  review  them. 

The  men  made  rich  by  the  mines  of  Colorado  had  the 
gratitude  and  patriotism  to  spend  their  money  where 
they  made  it.  Tabor  gave  Denver  its  first  important  im- 
pulse by  erecting  splendid  buildings  as  monuments  to  his 
faith  in  the  city's  future.  Hagerman  planted  the  Mid- 
land Railway  on  the  Continental  Divide,  and  invested 
millions  in  reclaiming  arid  lands  tributary  to  Colorado 
commerce.  General  Palmer,  the  railroad  pioneer,  found- 
ed Colorado  Springs,  encouraged  improvements  in  every 
direction,  and  built  his  home  in  the  State  which  had  re- 
warded his  daring  enterprise.  Such  was  the  spirit  of 
most  of  the  successful  Coloradans  towards  the  country 
which  gave  them  their  opportunities.  The  wealth  taken 
from  the  mines  and  railroads  of  Nevada,  on  the  other 
hand,  contributed  nothing  to  the  embellishment  of  its 
cities  or  the  conquest  of  its  waste-places.  It  went  to 
build  palaces  in  San  Francisco,  New  York,  and  London, 
and  to  increase  the  social  gayety  of  Newport  and  Paris. 
It  would  not  be  just  to  infer  that  the  difference  in  the 
attitude  of  the  two  sets  of  millionaires  was  wholly  »luo 
to  their  individual  characteristics.  Circumstances  had 
much  to  do  with  it,  notably  the  fact  that  in  Nevada  the 
mining  industry  was  mostly  concentrated  in  a  single 
great  camp,  which  enhanced  its  speculative  character, 
and  the  fact  that  the  superlative  attractions  of  California 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

lay  within  a  few  hours'  ride  of  Virginia  City.  But  the 
difference,  nevertheless,  wrought  momentous  results  in 
the  fortunes  of  States. 

The  railroad  situation  is  another  important  factor  in 
the  backwardness  of  Nevada.  Whenever  a  single  rail- 
road controls  the  inlet  and  outlet  of  a  State,  the  indus- 
trial and  commercial  destinies  of  that  State  are,  to  a  large 
extent,  committed  to  the  keeping  of  that  railroad.  These 
facts  are  further  emphasized  when  it  happens  that  the  rail- 
road runs  through  agricultural  territory  and  possesses  a 
land  grant  covering  every  other  section  for  a  distance  of 
twenty  miles  on  both  sides  of  the  track.  Development 
necessarily  hinges  on  the  policy  of  the  railroad,  both  as 
to  rates  and  as  to  the  encouragement  of  enterprise.  The 
only  alternative  is  to  build  a  competing  line,  and  this  is 
extremely  difficult  if  the  construction  of  the  first  lias 
not  resulted  in  the  development  of  the  country  and  the 
growth  of  its  population.  Nevada  in  a  flourishing  con- 
dition would  invite  competition  not  merely  for  its  own 
business,  but  also  for  the  rich  spoil  of  California's  traffic. 
Nevada  as  a  stretch  of  hopeless  desert,  on  the  other 
hand,  constitutes  a  perfect  insurance  against  competi- 
tion for  the  larger  prize  on  the  farther  side  of  tho 
Sierras.  It  has  not  been  the  policy  of  the  Central 
Pacific  to  make  this  "risk"  extra-hazardous,  or  to  in- 
crease its  cost,  by  developing  the  territory  between  Utah 
and  California.  It  is  sometimes  charged  that  the  Cen- 
tral Pacific  is  distinctly  hostile  to  Nevada.  The  prob- 
able truth  is  that,  having  the  interest  of  their  whole  great 
system  to  consider,  the  managers  arrange  their  policies 
according  to  the  dictates  of  shrewd  business  sense,  and 
that  Nevada  has  merely  the  ill-fortune  to  be  pinched  in 

203 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  process.  If  it  would  have  paid  the  Central  Pacific 
better  to  develop  the  State  than  to  let  it  remain  a  wil- 
derness, it  would  have  been  developed.  Just  criticism 
should  be  directed  to  the  system  which  permits  the  pri- 
vate ownership  of  public  highways,  and  not  against  indi- 
viduals, since  human  nature  is  everywhere  much  alike. 

Utah  was  developed  without  the  aid  either  of  rail- 
roads or  millionaires,  but  Utah  has  had  a  colonization 
policy  from  the  beginning  down  to  the  present  hour.  If 
Brigham  Young  had  not  recalled  his  colonists  from 
the  valleys  of  the  Carson,  the  Walker,  and  the  Truckee 
during  the  fifties,  no  one  would  now  complain  of  de- 
creasing population  —  a  sin  never  charged  against  the 
Mormons.  The  difference  between  the  sister  States  of 
the  Great  Basin  is  not  an  affair  of  raw  materials.  It  is 
the  difference  between  the  results  of  speculative  mining, 
on  one  hand,  and  of  the  patient  development  of  agricult- 
ural resources  by  methods  of  sober  industry,  on  the 
other. 

Nevada  is  the  victim  of  circumstances.  Rich  in  the 
potentialities  of  material  greatness,  and  therefore  strong 
in  the  capacity  to  support  a  social  structure,  it  presents 
the  baffling  paradox  of  declining  population  in  a  west- 
ern State.  If  it  were  located  in  South  Africa,  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  would  plot  and  struggle  for  possession  of 
its  minerals,  lands,  and  waters  ;  if  in  New  South  Wales, 
the  colonial  government  would  employ  the  public  capi- 
tal to  reclaim  its  deserts  and  to  enable  the  surplus  popu- 
lation of  Adelaide  to  make  homes  upon  its  soil ;  if  in 
Germany,  the  Imperial  government  would  charter  "rent 
bunks"  to  operate  under  a  commission  in  preparing  the 
land  for  settlement  and  building  humble  houses,  to  be 

204 


POTENTIAL  GREATNESS  OF  NEVADA 

purchased  by  home-seekers  on  generous  terms  ;  if  in  Hol- 
land, the  servants  of  the  little  Queen  would  extend  the 
admirable  colonies  which  have  flourished  for  seventy-five 
years,  graduating  thousands  of  needy  men  from  beggary 
to  tenantry,  from  tenantry  to  proprietorship.  But  Ne- 
vada is  in  tho  United  States,  and  the  remedy  for  its  mis- 
fortune is — to  deprive  it  of  its  Senators ! 

If  anything  is  to  be  done  for  Nevada  the  impulse  must 
come  from  without.  Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  her  great 
area  is  public  land  and  the  property  of  the  nation.  The 
present  land  laws  were  made  in  ignorance  of  the  con- 
ditions imposed  by  aridity,  and  are  practically  unsuitcd 
for  any  honest  and  intelligent  purpose  of  home-making. 
The  citizenship  of  the  State  is  composed  of  miners,  who 
care  nothing  for  agricultural  expansion  ;  of  farmers,  who 
are  not  anxious  to  foster  competition  ;  of  stockmen,  who 
want  undisturbed  possession  of  water  privileges  for  their 
herds ;  and  of  merchants  and  professional  men  who  are 
helpless  to  turn  the  wheel  of  progress.  Congressman 
Newlands  made  an  elaborate  effort  to  awaken  interest  in 
irrigation  development  a  few  years  ago,  offering  to  back 
it  with  his  large  means,  but  it  came  to  nothing  because  of 
public  indifference  and  subtle  opposition.  The  same  con- 
ditions prevented  the  strong  effort  of  the  late  Governor 
Jones — a  man  who  had  the  progress  of  his  State  deeply  at 
heart— from  reforming  the  water  laws  and  providing  an 
irrigation  administrative  system.  It  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  suggest  palliative  policies  which  would  help  to 
turn  the  tide  in  the  right  direction.  For  instance,  cer- 
tain favored  districts  might  be  withdrawn  from  settlement 
under  present  laws,  and  granted  under  special  induce- 
ments to  organizations  like  the  Salvation  Army,  or  Com- 

205 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

mancler  Booth's  Volunteers,  who  might  reclaim  and 
colonize  them  in  co-operation  with  philanthropic  persons. 
But  the  truth  is  that  Nevada's  decadence  is  due  to 
economic  evils  common  to  the  arid  region — to  evils  which 
call  for  deeper  and  broader  measures  than  can  be  applied 
to  any  single  locality. 


CHAPTER  VII 
WYOMING,    LAW-GIVER  OF  THE   ARID   REGION 

A  SINGLE  railroad  traverses  the  length  of  Wyoming, 
taking  the  traveller  through  that  portion  of  the  State 
possessing  the  least  attractions  in  the  way  of  scenery  and 
development.  As  a  consequence,  thousands  of  people 
who  have  made  the  transcontinental  journey  think  of 
this  new  commonwealth  as  a  barren  wilderness  of  withered 
grass  and  stunted  sage-brush,  with  an  abundance  of 
rugged  mountain  views  along  its  southern  horizon,  but 
without  visible  means  of  support  for  population  save  a  few 
cheerless  trading  towns  and  grimy  coal-mining  camps. 
These  tourists  find  the  altitude  disagreeably  high  and  the 
atmosphere  generally  chilly,  if  not  cold.  They  behold  no 
cultivated  fields,  no  homes  framed  in  trees  and  vines  ; 
hence  do  not  marvel  that  the  population  of  this  vast 
State  is  no  larger  than  that  of  fourth-class  cities  in  the 
East. 

Spite  of  this  popular  prejudice,  which  may  hardly  be 
complained  of  as  unreasonable,  Wyoming  is  a  very  great 
State  in  its  natural  resources,  and  must  some  day  sustain 
a  population  as  large  as  that  of  Ohio  and  Illinois.  If 
its  first  railroad  had  penetrated  its  central  or  northern 
counties  it  would  even  now  be  as  celebrated  and  as  pop- 
ulous as  Colorado.  Because  of  its  stores  of  coal  and 

207 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

petroleum  it  is  frequently  called  the  "  Pennsylvania  of 
the  West."  Its  deposits  of  both  base  and  precious  metals 
are  extensive  and  widely  diffused,  though  the  present 
output  is  small,  owing  to  the  cost  of  transportation  and 
the  fact  that  mining  capital  and  enterprise  have  been  at- 
tracted elsewhere  by  the  greater  fame  of  other  localities. 
It  is  well  endowed  with  forests  and  blessed  with  the  no- 
blest scenery,  of  which  the  far-famed  grandeurs  of  the 
Yellowstone  Park  furnish  the  best  example.  But  its 
greatest  resources  are  those  of  water  and  of  land.  It  is 
estimated  that  not  less  than  ten  million  acres  of  fertile 
land  may  be  reclaimed  by  irrigation.  Distributed  rather 
evenly  through  different  portions  of  the  State,  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  wealth  of  mine,  forest,  water-power,  and 
natural  pastures,  this  irrigable  land  will  furnish  the  solid 
foundation  of  a  great  and  manifold  economic  life  in  fut- 
ure centuries. 

The  great  industry  of  Wyoming  from  the  time  of  its 
first  settlement  has  been  stock-raising.  Its  agriculture 
has  been  mostly  auxiliary  to  this.  Herds  of  horses, 
cattle,  and  sheep  are  grazed  upon  the  enormous  free 
pasture  or  range  from  spring  to  autumn,  and  then  fed 
upon  the  native  or  alfalfa  hay  raised  in  the  irrigated 
valleys.  This  industry  has  been  the  source  of  local  pros- 
perity and  enlisted  great  sums  of  eastern  and  foreign 
capital.  It  is  a  pursuit  which  does  not  develop  tho 
higher  possibilities  of  the  country,  either  in  a  material 
or  social  way,  and  so  long  as  its  influence  strongly  domi- 
nated tho  life  of  the  community  Wyoming  did  not  fur- 
nish an  attractive  field  for  settlers.  There  was  a  time 
when  prominent  men  actually  deprecated  the  growth  of 
population,  and  boldly  asserted  that  brute  cattle  were 

208 


WYOMING,  LAW-GIVER   OF   ARID    REGION 

more  to  bo  welcomed  than  men,  women,  and  children  in 
that  sparsely  settled  empire.  In  the  last  few  years,  how- 
ever, the  tendency  of  public  thought  and  political  action, 
consequently  of  development,  has  been  distinctly  away 
from  barbarism  and  towards  civilization. 

What  is  rather  grotesquely  known  as  "  The  Rustlers' 
War  "  of  1892  had  much  to  do  with  the  changed  con- 
ditions. Properly  speaking,  it  was  not  a  war,  but  a  raid, 
which  ended  disastrously  so  far  as  its  immediate  purpose 
was  concerned.  Individuals  and  companies  owning  large 
herds  of  horses  and  cattle  had  suffered  repeatedly  from 
the  depredations  of  thieves  or  "rustlers."  They  had 
often  apprehended  the  culprits  and  sought  by  every 
means  in  their  power  to  punish  them  through  the  courts. 
But  the  cases  were  tried  in  counties  where  public  sen- 
timent strongly  opposed  the  great  cattle-owners.  The 
result  was  that  no  jury  could  be  found  to  convict.  After 
a  long  and  exasperating  experience  of  this  kind  the 
large  stock  interests  determined  to  try  a  heroic  remedy. 
They  fitted  out  an  expedition,  consisting  mostly  of  rough 
characters  from  Texas,  and  thoroughly  armed  it,  even  a 
Gatling  gun  being  included  in  its  equipment.  The  ex- 
pedition was  led  by  prominent  and  wealthy  citizens  and 
accompanied  by  a  young  English  lord  in  search  of  a  new 
sensation. 

A  considerable  number  of  "  rustlers,"  who  were  settlers 
living  in  lonely  places  with  small  bands  of  cattle  or  horses, 
were  marked  for  "removal,"  or,  plainly  speaking,  for 
murder.  The  expedition  set  out  blithely  enough,  har- 
boring no  doubts  of  its  complete  success  and  not  dream- 
ing that  any  obstacle  could  be  interposed  to  its  formi- 
dable array.  The  first  two  "rustlers "  encountered  were 
o  209 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

found  conveniently  at  their  cabin  doors  and  promptly 
despatched,  though  they  died  with  their  guns  in  their 
hands  and  were  able  to  make  a  feeble  response  to  the 
overwhelming  numbers.  But  beyond  these  two  assassi- 
nations the  expedition  was  unsuccessful.  The  small 
settlers  throughout  the  region  were  in  sympathy  with  the 
men  marked  for  death.  The  news  of  the  "  invasion  " 
spread  with  incredible  swiftness,  and  before  the  expedition 
could  reach  the  homes  of  other  intended  victims  the 
"rustlers"  and  their  farmer  allies,  under  the  aggressive 
leadership  of  Jack  Flagg — a  noted  character  in  the  neigh- 
borhood— rallied  in  large  numbers.  They  surrounded 
the  "invaders"  at  a  farm-house,  and  would  have  exter- 
minated them  to  the  last  man  except  for  the  timely  ar- 
rival of  a  troop  of  United  States  cavalry  from  the  nearest 
fort.  After  several  months  of  delay,  the  powerful  politi- 
cal influence  of  those  who  had  organized  the  expedition 
succeeded  in  setting  its  members  free  without  serious 
punishment. 

Public  opinion  differed  much  as  to  the  justice  of  this 
bold  effort  to  dispose  once  and  for  all  of  the  annoying  and 
costly  evil  of  cattle -thieves.  By  some  it  was  regarded 
as  the  irrepressible  conflict  between  the  irrigated  farm 
and  the  free  range.  These  thought  that  the  real  animus 
of  the  affair  lay  not  in  the  just  complaint  ii-gainst  a  few 
thieves,  but  in  the  fixed  determination  of  those  who 
profited  from  the  unrestricted  use  of  the  public  lands  to 
prevent,  at  any  cost,  further  settlement  by  honest  farmers. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  were  many  good  citizens,  men 
who  had  not  hesitated  to  risk  their  fortunes  in  construct- 
ing irrigation  works  for  the  very  purpose  of  opening 
certain  valleys  to  settlement,  who  did  not  hesitate  to 

210 


WYOMING,  LAW-GIVER  OF  ARID  REGION 

defend  the  expedition  as  the  only  possible  means  of  end- 
ing an  intolerable  condition  in  the  State.  The  writer 
has  taken  pains  to  gather  testimony  years  after  the 
event,  when  angry  passions  had  wholly  passed  away,  and 
found  excellent  evidence  of  the  fact  that  those  who  were 
selected  for  extermination  at  the  hands  of  the  "  invad- 
ers "  were  actually  cattle  -  thieves ;  that  it  was  clearly 
impossible  either  to  end  the  evil  or  to  stop  its  growth  by 
appeal  to  the  courts;  and  that  farmers  who  settled  in 
good  faith  were  never  molested  by  the  large  stock  in- 
terests. 

However,  the  political  control  of  Wyoming  speedily 
changed  hands  as  the  result  of  this  dramatic  episode. 
The  party  in  power  at  the  time  of  the  event  was  voted 
into  retirement,  and  the  party  which  denounced  the 
"  invasion"  as  a  savage  and  unmanly  attempt  to  make 
widows  and  orphans  of  the  wives  and  children  of  those 
who  honestly  sought  homes  in  the  public  domain  was 
installed  in  the  Capitol  at  Cheyenne.  The  probable 
truth  of  the  matter  is  that  wealthy  cattlemen  had  a  real 
grievance  which  they  could  not  adjust  peacefully  with- 
out years  of  patient  waiting.  They  felt  perfectly  justi- 
fied in  their  consciences  in  resorting  to  violence.  They 
believed  the  result  would  be  favorable  to  the  prosperity 
and  good  name  of  the  State.  This  actually  proved  to  be 
the  case,  but  in  a  very  different  way  from  what  they  had 
anticipated.  It  drew  attention  in  a  startling  manner  to 
certain  evils  inseparable  from  the  open  range  and  put 
these  evils  on  the  road  to  ultimate  settlement  through 
Congressional  action.  It  broke  the  power  of  what  was 
doubtless  justly  known  as  "The  Cattle  Ring"  in  State 
politics.  It  gave  an  impulse  to  better  forms  of  dcvelop- 

211 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ment  and  a  healthier  tone  to  public  thought.  Above 
all,  it  taught  the  men  of  the  frontier  the  great  lesson 
that  this  is  a  government  of  laws  and  institutions,  and 
that  nothing  is  to  be  gained  in  the  end  by  resorting  to 
violence,  at  least  when  nothing  more  precious  to  human- 
ity than  the  ownership  of  dumb  brutes  is  the  issue  in- 
volved. 

The  irrigation  development  of  Wyoming  is  distributed 
over  a  wide  area.  As  has  already  been  said,  it  has  grown 
up  mostly  as  an  adjunct  to  the  cattle  business.  The 
water  supply  is  very  abundant,  and  admitted  of  the  con- 
struction of  many  cheap  canals  by  settlers,  without  the 
assistance  of  outside  capital.  Grass,  grain,  and  vege- 
tables are  the  principal  crops,  but  the  State  annually 
sends  from  half  a  million  to  one  million  dollars  beyond 
its  borders  for  agricultural  products.  This  is  due  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  the  chief  farming  centres  are  wide- 
ly separated  from  the  principal  towns  and  not  connected 
with  them  by  railroads.  It  is  due  also  to  the  fact  that 
small-farming  has  not  yet  been  undertaken  to  any  extent, 
and  that  farmers  produce  mostly  only  what  they  can  feed 
to  cattle  or  sell  to  others  having  cattle  to  feed. 

The  most  active  agricultural  region  is  in  the  north- 
central  portion  of  the  State,  in  Johnson  and  Sheridan 
counties.  It  was  from  this  district  that  the  marvellous 
wheat,  barley,  and  oats  were  sent  to  the  World's  Fair  at 
Chicago — products  which  astonished  Eastern  farmers  and 
won  the  highest  prizes.  Here,  as  indeed  throughout  the 
State,  the  farmers  are  highly  prosperous.  They  have 
never  known  the  miseries  of  their  drought  -  stricken 
neighbors  so  close  at  hand  in  Nebraska  and  Dakota. 
Selling  their  product  at  home,  they  have  not  felt  the  bur- 

212 


\YYOMING,   LAW-GIVER   OF   ARID   REGION 

den  of  transportation  charges,  nor  had  their  prices  much 
reduced  hy  the  glut  of  cereals  in  the  world's  market. 

The  earliest  irrigation  work  of  great  importance  was 
that  at  Wheatland,  sixty-five  miles  north  of  Cheyenne. 
This  was  undertaken  by  local  capitalists,  headed  by 
ex -Senator  Carey.  After  surviving  many  difficulties,  it 
has  at  length  entered  upon  a  period  of  real  prosperity 
and  created  the  finest  agricultural  colony  in  tlie  State. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  many  of  its  people  repre- 
sent the  overflow  of  the  famous  Greeley  Colony  in  neigh- 
boring Colorado.  Although  less  than  a  generation  from 
its  founding,  Greeley  already  has  surplus  people  to  send 
forth  for  the  conquest  of  waste  places  a  little  farther 
off. 

The  most  notable  recent  enterprise  in  Wyoming  is  that 
undertaken  in  the  Big  Horn  Basin  by  the  famous  scout 
William  F.  Cody,  familiarly  known  as  "Buffalo  Bill." 
This  energetic  and  ambitious  man,  who  has  twice  won 
fame — first  as  a  daring  and  successful  scout,  and  then 
as  exhibitor  to  two  continents  of  the  life,  people,  and 
customs  of  the  Wild  West — is  laying  broad  and  deep  the 
foundations  of  a  stronger  claim  to  remembrance.  He 
conceived  the  idea  of  planting  civilization  in  one  of  the 
wildest  regions  which  he  had  first  known  as  hunter  and 
Indian-fighter.  The  money  which  the  public  has  poured 
into  the  coffers  of  his  Wild  West  Show,  Cody  has  used  in 
reclaiming  and  colonizing  two  hundred  thousand  acres 
in  the  valley  of  the  Shoshone  river  in  northern  Wyo- 
ming, twenty  to  sixty  miles  from  the  Montana  line  and 
immediately  east  of  Yellowstone  Park.  The  altitude 
hero  is  only  about  four  thousand  feet,  and  the  climate 
suited  to  the  production  of  diversified  crops,  including 

213 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

hardy  fruits.  It  is  also  the  finest  of  cattle  countries, 
and  is  surrounded  by  an  abundance  of  mineral  and  tim- 
ber. Its  products  find  ready  sale  in  the  large  and  grow- 
ing mining-camps  of  the  neighborhood,  as  well  as  of  Mon- 
tana. In  time  the  region  must  acquire  a  large  popula- 
tion and  support  a  many-sided  industrial  life.  It  will 
be  a  very  substantial  monument  to  William  F.  Cody  and 
his  work  for  the  West. 

Wyoming  possesses  a  distinction  entirely  apart  from 
its  rich  endowment  of  mineral  resources  and  different 
from  that  of  any  of  its  sister  commonwealths.  It  is  rec- 
ognized as  the  law-giver  of  the  arid  region.  It  is  the 
State  which  has  contributed  most  to  working  out  the 
legal  institutions  on  which  a  great  future  civilization  will 
rest  throughout  western  America.  In  tnis  respect  its 
position  of  leadership  is  alike  unapproached  and  un- 
challenged. 

Those  who  live  in  the  humid  portions  of  the  United 
States  cannot  realize  the  full  significance  of  this  fact. 
In  the  arid  West  water  is  gold.  The  struggle  for  its 
possession  has  been  marked  by  dramatic  interest  and  even 
pathos,  wholly  apart  from  its  economic  character.  In- 
deed, the  control  of  water  for  irrigation  is  so  inter- 
woven with  the  existence  and  well-being  of  society  in 
the  West  that  it  may  almost  be  said  to  include  every 
human  interest.  Men  may  own  estates  of  equal  size  and 
fertility  lying  side  by  side.  The  one  who  came  earliest 
claims  the  water  supply,  which  may  be  barely  suflicient 
for  his  own  land.  With  this  water  supply  he  makes  his 
place  blossom  with  large  and  regular  crops,  and  is  rich. 
His  neighbor,  with  the  same  kind  of  soil  and  climate,  is 
doomed  to  perpetual  poverty.  Water  has  made  all  the 

214 


WYOMING,   LAW-GIVER   OF   ARID   REGION 

difference  between  success  and  failure — between  plenty 
and  starvation.  Under  these  conditions  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  the  highest  possible  moment  to  provide  for  the 
just  distribution  and  the  economical  and  proper  use  of 
so  much  water  as  may  be  available.  In  the  arid  region 
as  a  whole  there  is  at  least  five  times  as  much  land  as 
water  for  its  reclamation.  There  are  certain  valleys 
where  the  water  supply  is  more  than  sufficient  for  the 
amount  of  land  it  can  command,  but  these  are  rare  ex- 
ceptions. 

It  would  bo  natural  to  suppose  that  the  first  object  of 
western  statesmanship  would  have  been  to  provide  laws 
and  methods  of  administration  calculated  to  conserve 
and  protect  the  water  supply,  to  the  end  that  it  might  bo 
used  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.  No 
perfection  of  laws  which  a  State  may  confer  upon  its  citi- 
zens in  any  other  respect  can  make  amends  for  any  in- 
justice it  may  inflict,  by  acts  either  of  commission  or 
omission,  in  connection  with  this  most  precious  of  all 
natural  gifts.  Of  land,  minerals,  timber,  sunshine,  and 
air  there  is  plenty  and  to  spare ;  of  water  there  is  lit- 
tle enough,  even  in  the  early  stages  of  settlement,  and  its 
value  must  increase  with  the  gain  in  population.  It  is 
true  public  policy — aye,  the  very  measure  of  the  growth 
and  wealth  of  communities — to  have  the  water  so  granted 
and  so  applied  that  it  may  serve  for  the  permanent  rec- 
lamation of  the  utmost  acre  of  land ;  for  the  building 
of  the  utmost  home;  for  the  sustenance  of  the  utmost 
family. 

Our  statesmanship  failed  almost  entirely  to  take  into 
account  this  most  vital  concern  of  western  civiliza- 
tion. It  imposed  upon  the  arid  region  the  common  laws 

215 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

of  England,  framed  for  a  country  which  needs  drainage 
rather  than  irrigation,  and  suffers  from  too  great  an 
abundance  of  water  in  the  clouds  above  and  the  earth 
beneath.  The  result  has  been  the  most  disheartening 
struggle  among  farmers  and  settlers  which  could  be  im- 
agined. Lawyers  have  grown  rich  upon  it,  but  the  pro- 
ducing classes  have  been  impoverished,  and  the  men  of 
enterprise  who  sought  to  broaden  the  foundation  for  civ- 
ilized society  in  our  western  valleys  have  been  discour- 
aged and  driven  out  of  business.  Stream  after  stream 
has  been  appropriated  over  and  over  again,  and,  in  com- 
pliance with  stupid  laws,  courts  have  calmly  confirmed 
grants  to  water  aggregating  many  times  the  entire  vol- 
ume in  the  channel.  Then  they  have  left  the  farmers 
to  fight  it  out  among  themselves,  sometimes  with  rival 
attorneys,  sometimes  with  shot-guns.  Cases  have  gone 
from  court  to  court,  and  the  same  issues  have  been  tried, 
retried,  and  tried  again.  Litigants  defeated  upon  these 
trials  have  ignored  judicial  decisions  and  taken  out  their 
neighbors'  head-gates  and  dams  in  defiance  of  injunc- 
tions and  decrees.  So  the  battle  has  gone  on  from  year 
to  year,  with  victory  at  last  for  those  who  could  longest 
withstand  the  drain  for  legal  expenses. 

This  was  the  condition  in  Wyoming  when  Elwood 
Mead  came  upon  the  scene  and  assumed  the  duties  of 
Territorial  Engineer.  A  native  of  Indiana,  ho  had 
moved  to  Colorado  in  earliest  manhood  and  was  at  onco 
attracted  by  the  irrigation  possibilities  of  the  country, 
in  which  he  saw  opportunities  for  usefulness  and  dis- 
tinction. He  served  for  a  time  as  a  member  of  the 
faculty  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  Colorado,  and 
there  learned  the  science  of  irrigation  in  its  relation  to 

216 


WYOMING,   LAW-GIVER   OF   ARID   REGION 

the  growth  of  crops.  Ho  also  became  an  assistant  in 
the  office  of  State  Engineer,  which  gave  him  an  insight 
into  water  laws  and  practice.  The  moment  of  his  arrival 
in  Wyoming  was  most  fortunate.  The  Territory  was 
about  to  become  a  State,  and  its  fundamental  laws  and 
institutions  were  to  bo  made  out  of  hand.  The  young 
engineer  had  already  formed  strong  convictions  as  to  the 
laws  which  should  govern  the  appropriation  and  use  of 
the  water  supply.  These  convictions  he  succeeded  in  im- 
pressing upon  the  work  of  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, and,  later,  upon  the  acts  of  the  Legislature.  Ho 
became  the  first  State  Engineer  of  Wyoming,  and  suc- 
ceeding Governors  kept  him  in  office,  with  the  strongest 
public  approval,  until  the  Agricultural  Department  at 
Washington  called  him  into  its  service  in  order  that  his 
abilities  and  experience  might  be  applied  in  a  wider 
sphere. 

Mr.  Mead  insisted  that  with  tho  birth  of  the  new 
State  every  old  water-right  should  be  adjudicated  upon 
the  basis  of  the  amount  of  water  actually  applied  to  a 
beneficial  use.  It  mattered  not  how  much  the  appro- 
priator  had  originally  claimed  by  posting  a  notice  on  tho 
bank  of  the  stream  and  placing  it  upon  the  county  rec- 
ords. He  may  have  claimed  ten  times  the  amount  of 
water  he  put  upon  his  land,  and  so  prevented  others  from 
obtaining  it  to  develop  new  farms.  Or  he  may  have  put 
upon  his  land  twice  as  much  water  as  the  crop  really 
required.  Whether  he  did  this  through  ignorance  or 
through  greed  was  of  no  consequence,  since  the  result 
was  equally  detrimental  to  the  community  in  either 
case.  By  means  of  this  vigorous  action  the  evil  which 
has  caused  so  much  suffering  and  cost  so  much  money 

217 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

in  other  western  States  was  cured  at  a  stroke  in  Wy- 
oming. 

The  State  Engineer  then  proceeded  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible to  measure  every  stream  used  for  irrigation,  and  to 
prepare  diagrams  showing  their  flow  at  different  seasons 
of  the  year.  When  new  appropriations  were  filed,  these 
diagrams  and  records  became  very  useful,  as  showing 
the  amount  of  water  unused  and  therefore  available  for 
the  needs  of  new  settlers.  Thus  there  was  no  danger 
that  more  water  would  be  granted  away  than  flowed  in 
the  stream,  which  is  the  ridiculous  condition  in  many 
other  localities.  The  same  rule  was  applied  to  the  en- 
largement of  old  canals.  Such  enlargements  could  not 
be  made  without  the  consent  of  State  authority,  and  be- 
fore this  would  be  given  it  must  be  demonstrated  that 
there  was  actually  a  surplus  in  the  stream  to  fill  the  en- 
larged canal. 

Elsewhere  reservoirs,  dams,  and  canals  are  construct- 
ed without  any  public  supervision.  In  Wyoming  all 
plans  and  specifications  must  first  be  submitted  to  the 
State  Engineer,  in  order  that  he  may  judge  as  to  whether 
they  are  in  accordance  with  public  policy,  by  making  the 
best  use  of  the  water  supply  and  by  conserving  life  and 
property. 

These  wise  laws  could  be  of  little  effect  unless  en- 
forced and  carried  out  by  an  adequate  system  of  adminis- 
tration. This  was  also  provided  under  Mr.  Mead's  influ- 
ence. The  State  Engineer  is  the  head  of  the  system,  and 
he  has  two  assistant  engineers.  The  State  is  divided 
into  four  large  divisions,  corresponding  to  natural  hydro- 
graphic  districts,  and  over  each  a  division  superinten- 
dent is  placed  in  charge.  These  divisions  are  then 

218 


WYOMING,   LAW-GIVER   OF   ARID   REGION 

organized  into  several  subdivisions,  with  a  water  commis- 
sioner over  each.  In  Division  No.  1  there  are  fourteen 
subdivisions  ;  in  Division  No.  %,  six ;  in  Division  No.  3, 
two;  in  Division  No.  4,  three.  The  water  commission- 
ers are  vested  with  police  powers,  and  personally  see  that 
the  water  is  turned  into  the  head-gate  of  each  canal  in 
accordance  with  its  legal  claims.  There  is  no  oppor- 
tunity for  neighbors  to  go  to  law,  or  even  to  shoot  each 
other.  The  exact  amount  of  water  to  which  they  are  en- 
titled, upon  the  basis  of  beneficial  use  under  economical 
methods,  was  determined  at  the  beginning,  and  this 
amount  is  meted  out  to  them  by  officials  having  no  in- 
terest in  local  contentions. 

These  laws  and  this  administrative  system  have  not 
only  given  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  irrigation  industry 
of  Wyoming,  but  are  regarded  as  models  the  world  over. 
Other  States  have  copied  them  extensively,  and  there 
can  be  no  question  that  in  the  end  they  will  become 
common  to  the  entire  arid  region.  Colorado  was  also  a 
pioneer  in  this  same  field,  but  neither  its  laws  nor  its 
administrative  system  are  equal  to  those  of  Wyoming. 
There  constant  litigation  has  caused  loss  and  hindered 
development,  yet,  with  the  exception  of  Wyoming,  no 
other  State  has  done  so  much  to  illustrate  the  better  pos- 
sibilities of  water  control  than  Colorado.  Idaho,  Nebras- 
ka, South  Dakota,  Kansas,  and  Washington  have  en- 
acted portions  of  the  Wyoming  laws.  In  all  the  other 
States,  with  the  single  exception  of  California,  the  ex- 
ample of  Wyoming  has  produced  results,  and  there  is 
hope  that  even  California  will  learn  in  time  that  irriga- 
tion and  litigation  are  not  necessarily  synonymous  terms. 

When  Wyoming,    in    common   with    the   other  arid 
219 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

States,  received  a  grant  of  one  million  acres,  to  be  re- 
claimed under  State  control,  Mr.  Mead  proceeded  at 
once  to  apply  his  ideas  of  public  supervision  to  this 
grant.  Upon  his  recommendation  the  legislature  pro- 
vided that  these  lands  should  be  reclaimed  by  con- 
struction companies  upon  conditions  which  furnished 
the  best  security  to  the  capital  employed,  yet  provided 
at  the  same  time  for  the  sale  of  lands  to  actual  set- 
tlers and  for  their  ultimate  ownership  of  the  canals. 
A  maximum  price  was  fixed  for  water  -  rights,  which 
were  made  inseparable  from  the  land.  Other  States 
copied  the  law  verbatim  from  the  statute-books  of  Wy- 
oming. 

Aside  from  the  great  work  accomplished  by  Mr.  Mead 
in  reforming  the  irrigation  laws  and  customs  of  the  West, 
Wyoming  has  made  another  contribution  of  large  im- 
portance to  the  country's  progress  along  this  line.  Two 
of  her  United  States  Senators,  Joseph  M.  Carey  and 
Francis  E.  Warren,  have  identified  themselves  conspic- 
uously with  great  measures  calculated  to  create  homes 
for  millions.  Senator  Carey  was  the  author  of  the  Act 
of  1894,  commonly  known  as  the  Carey  Law,  which  gave 
one  million  acres  to  each  of  the  western  States  upon  con- 
dition that  the  land  bo  reclaimed  and  settled  within  ten 
years.  Senator  Warren  is  the  leader  of  the  new  and  grow- 
ing movement  which  aims  at  Federal  appropriations  to  bo 
used  in  the  construction  of  great  reservoirs  beyond  the 
reach  of  private  enterprise.  With  signal  ability  and  de- 
votion these  two  Wyoming  statesmen  have  labored  for 
years  to  open  the  arid  public  domain  to  settlement ;  to 
solve  the  vexed  questions  arising  from  the  unrestricted 
use  of  the  open  range  ;  and  to  provide  enlightened  Icgis- 

220 


WYOMING,   LA\V-(iIVEK   OF   ARID    REGION 

lation  for  the  protection  of  the  forests  so  important  in 
connection  with  irrigation. 

Wyoming's  place  as  the  law-giver  of  the  arid  region  is 
due  neither  to  geographical  location  nor  to  superior 
natural  resources.  Certainly  it  is  not  duo  to  large  pop- 
ulation. It  owes  its  commanding  position  solely  to  the 
character  and  ability  of  a  few  public  men  who  happen 
to  have  found  in  this  line  of  work  their  best  opportu- 
nities for  usefulness.  As  a  result  of  this  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance, Wyoming  occupies  among  western  States  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  a  relation  not 
unlike  that  which  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  held  to 
the  States  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   PROSPERITY   OF   MONTANA 

MONTANA  is  a  State  of  magnificent  resources.  The 
first  white  men  who  ever  saw  it  —  French  explorers  in 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century — called  it  "The 
Land  of  the  Shining  Mountains."  The  appellation  is 
true  as  well  as  poetic,  for  it  is  the  possession  of  its  snow- 
capped ranges,  reflecting  the  light  of  the  brilliant  sky, 
whtch  differentiates  Montana  from  the  adjoining  prairie 
States  of  the  Northwest.  It  is  the  mountains  which  hold 
the  wealth  of  waters  and  minerals  and  make  the  charac- 
ter of  the  climate. 

Montana  ranks  third  in  point  of  area  among  American 
States,  and  third  in  the  value  of  its  annual  mineral  out- 
put. It  is  yet  too  early,  by  many  years,  to  estimate  its 
final  place  in  extent  of  population  and  agriculture.  To- 
day mining  is  the  first  of  its  industries,  stock-raising  the 
second,  agriculture  the  third.  Mining  gave  the  impulse 
to  its  settlement  and  is  the  backbone  of  its  prosperity. 
The  forty  millions  of  dollars  annually  taken  out  in  cop- 
per, lead,  gold,  and  silver  make  it  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous of  western  communities.  The  discovery  of  new 
mining  districts  steadily  continues,  and  the  flow  of  wealth 
from  this  item  of  the  State's  resources  will  endure  in- 
definitely. The  conditions  of  the  stock  industry  are 

222 


THE    PROSPERITY    OF    MONTANA 

very  similar  to  those  which  wo  observed  in  Wyoming. 
Of  the  total  population  of  about  two  hundred  thousand, 
the  farmers  are  a  small  minority.  Nevertheless,  irriga- 
tion is  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  important  interests 
of  the  State,  and  the  field  open  to  settlement  offers  many 
attractions. 

The  first  ditches  in  Montana  were  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  washing  gold-bearing  gravel  along  the  bars  and 
gulches.  When  their  usefulness  in  this  direction  was 
exhausted  they  were  turned  into  irrigation  canals  by  the 
farmers  who  came  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  early  miners. 
For  many  years  development  was  limited  to  works  of  this 
humble  character.  Farmers  had  their  own  individual 
ditches,  or  combined  their  labor  in  making  canals  suffi- 
cient to  water  small  districts.  In  this  manner  most  of 
the  mountain  streams  capable  of  easy  diversion  were  util- 
ized. As  in  Wyoming,  irrigation  was  largely  used  as 
only  an  adjunct  to  stock-raising.  In  recent  years  le- 
gitimate agriculture  has  begun  to  make  rapid  progress. 
Large  capital  has  been  invested  in  a  few  comprehensive 
irrigation  systems,  notably  in  the  valleys  of  the  Dearborn 
and  the  Sun  rivers,  north  of  Helena. 

Montana  is  divided  into  three  natural  drainage  areas — 
those  of  the  Missouri  and  Yellowstone  rivers  on  the  east 
of  the  main  range  of  the  Kockies,  and  that  of  the  waters 
tributary  to  the  Columbia  on  the  western  slope  of  the 
mountains.  The  eastern  slope  embraces  the  fertile  val- 
leys of  the  Yellowstone,  the  Gallatin,  the  Madison,  the 
Jefferson,  the  Beaverhead,  the  Prickly,  and  the  long  val- 
ley of  the  Missouri,  with  the  Milk-river  system  in  the 
extreme  north,  on  the  border  of  Canada.  The  western 
slope  is  mountainous  and  heavily  timbered,  with  corn- 

223 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

paratively  small  though  fertile  valleys.  The  principal 
streams  are  the  Flathead,  Clarke's  Fork  of  the  Columbia, 
and  the  Kootenai.  The  ultimate  extent  of  irrigable  land 
within  the  boundaries  of  Montana  is  purely  speculative, 
estimates  ranging  from  ten  to  thirty  million  acres.  In 
the  matter  of  water  supply  the  State  is  among  the  most 
fortunate  in  the  West,  though  its  full  utilization  will 
require  vast  expenditure  for  the  construction  of  storage- 
works  and  of  long  canals.  Some  of  the  largest  rivers, 
like  the  Missouri  and  the  Yellowstone,  are  enclosed  by 
high  bluffs,  and  water  can  be  taken  to  the  elevated 
plains,  comprising  the  larger  areas  of  valuable  land, 
only  by  means  of  diversions  made  high  up  upon  the 
streams. 

The  opportunities  which  Montana  offers  to  settlers 
have  not  been  appreciated  as  they  deserve.  This  is 
doubtless  due  to  the  severity  of  the  climate,  which  is 
generally  misunderstood.  The  State  is  in  a  high  lati- 
tude, and  does,  indeed,  experience  cold  winters.  But  its 
valleys  are  comparatively  low,  averaging  much  lower 
than  those  of  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Nevada,  and  Utah, 
and  its  climate  decidedly  healthful.  The  thermometer 
goes  twenty  or  thirty  degrees  below  zero  in  the  winter, 
but  this  degree  of  cold  in  the  dry  air  of  Montana  is 
much  less  disagreeable  than  ten  degrees  above  zero  in 
any  of  the  cities  on  the  borders  of  the  Great  Lakes.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  State  enjoys  a  remarkably  even  pros- 
perity, and  no  other  localities  offer  better  certainty  of 
home  markets,  where  the  products  of  the  farm  can  be 
disposed  of  at  good  prices. 

There  are  many  large  and  growing  towns,  and  two  or 
three  cities  of  considerable  size.  The  mining  popula- 


THE    PROSPERITY    OF    MONTANA 

tion  is  destined  steadily  to  increase,  while  manufactur- 
ing must  begin  in  earnest  during  the  next  decade.  The 
wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  vegetables  produced  in  the  irri- 
gated valleys  are  remarkable  both  in  quantity  and  qual- 
ity. The  brewers  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  selected  the 
Manhattan  Valley  for  important  agricultural  operations, 
because  they  found  it  would  grow  the  finest  barley  in  the 
world.  Small  fruits  are  prolific  and  of  fine  flavor. 

Even  the  orchard  fruits,  especially  apples  and  plums, 
are  produced  successfully  in  the  more  sheltered  valleys. 
The  exhibits  which  one  sees  at  county  fairs,  particu- 
larly at  those  on  the  western  slope  in  valleys  like  the 
Bitter  Root,  make  surprising  revelations  of  the  fruit 
possibilities  in  this  northwestern  State.  But  the  settler's 
chief  opportunity  will  be  found  in  supplying  the  com- 
mon farm  products  required  by  the  large  and  growing 
population  in  the  cities  and  towns.  Of  the  present  local 
consumption,  forty  per  cent,  of  the  flour,  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  pork,  bacon,  and  ham,  ninety-two  per  cent, 
of  the  lard,  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  butter,  ninety-eight 
per  cent,  of  the  cheese,  and  forty-three  per  cent,  of  the 
eggs  are  now  brought  in  from  elsewhere.  When  these 
facts  are  considered  in  connection  with  the  cheap  land, 
abundant  water  supply,  and  healthful  climate,  it  is  ap- 
parent that  Montana  offers  great  attractions  to  colonists. 

The  Gallatin  Valley,  southeast  of  Helena  on  the  main 
line  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  is  the  most  famous  agri- 
cultural district  of  Montana.  It  is  well  settled,  with  a 
class  of  thrifty  farmers  engaged  in  producing  a  variety  of 
ordinary  crops.  Bozeman,  the  county  seat,  is  the  homo 
of  the  State  Agricultural  College,  and  this  institute  haa 
done  much  to  raise  the  standard  of  irrigation  and  of 
p  235 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

farming  in  the  locality,  and  thus  to  enhance  the  valley's 
prestige.  The  Missouri  Valley,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Great  Falls,  and  the  Bitter  Root  Valley  about  Missoula, 
are  other  well-developed  districts.  Crops  are  generally 
planted  in  April  or  the  first  half  of  May,  though  some- 
times in  March.  The  spring  rains  continuing  until  the 
middle  of  June,  irrigation  does  not  begin  until  that  date. 
Cattle,  sheep,  and  wool  are  shipped  to  eastern  markets, 
but  other  products  are  consumed  within  the  State. 

While  copper  and  the  precious  metals  are  the  chief 
mineral  products  of  the  State,  it  is  rich  in  lead,  iron, 
coal,  building  materials,  and  precious  stones.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  an  area  of  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  square 
miles  is  underlaid  with  bituminous  or  lignite  coal  of  good 
quality.  Coke  is  a  growing  product.  The  State  is  also 
rich  in  forests  and  abundantly  supplied  with  natural 
water-power.  It  has,  in  a  word,  all  the  materials  of  a 
diversified  industrial  life. 

The  social  and  political  life  of  Montana  is  vigorous 
and  interesting.  Both  the  climate  and  the  industries 
are  calculated  to  breed  a  sturdy  and  self-reliant  people. 
Helena,  the  capital,  located  in  what  was  formerly  known 
as  Last  Chance  Gulch,  has  long  enjoyed  the  reputation 
of  being  the  richest  city  in  proportion  to  its  population 
in  the  world.  Butte  is  still  larger — the  largest  mining 
camp  in  the  United  States.  These  two  leading  towns 
present  radically  dilferent  aspects  of  western  life. 
Helena  is  the  political  and  social  capital,  Butte  the 
grimy  centre  of  industry.  Botli  have  enjoyed  phenom- 
enal prosperity,  and  escaped,  to  a  large  degree,  the  re- 
lapses which  have  afflicted  other  ambitious  western 
cities  at  various  times. 

220 


THE    PROSPERITY    OF    MONTANA 

The  truth  is  that  Montana  has  been,  and  is  yet,  a 
marvellously  substantial  State.  It  has  enjoyed  a  steady 
stream  of  wealth  from  the  mine,  the  range,  and  the  farm. 
Its  mercantile  enterprises  have  naturally  thriven  tinder 
these  conditions,  and  labor  has  been  busy  and  well  paid. 
It  has  not  been  the  policy  of  the  people  to  encourage 
immigration  on  reckless  lines  merely  to  increase  the 
population.  On  the  contrary,  the  public  sentiment  has 
been  notably  conservative,  and  has  only  urged  those  to 
come  who  could  be  self-supporting  by  tilling  the  soil  or 
establishing  other  industries. 

Great  Falls,  located  at  the  most  eligible  water-power 
of  the  Upper  Missouri  river,  has  enjoyed  a  remarkable 
growth  of  population,  and  promises  to  become  in  time 
one  of  the  great  cities  of  the  West.  In  addition  to  the 
water-power,  it  has  the  advantage  of  being  surrounded 
by  the  raw  materials  of  manufacture,  in  the  shape  of 
coal,  iron,  timber,  and  the  products  of  the  range — such 
as  wool  and  hides — while  large  agricultural  districts  are 
tributary  to  it.  There  are  many  important  towns  along 
the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  and  the  Great  Northern 
railroads.  Of  these  Missoula  is  a  prosperous  mercantile 
point  on  the  western  slope,  and  Billings  is  the  focus  of 
agriculture  in  the  Yellowstone  Valley. 

Viewed  as  a  whole,  Montana  is  a  State  of  substantial 
achievement  and  of  splendid  promise. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  AWAKENING   OF   NEW    MEXICO 

IN  the  southwestern  Territories  modern  methods  of 
reclamation  are  asserting  their  influence  in  the  midst  of 
historic  and  prehistoric  irrigation  scenes. 

In  1539  Fray  Marcos  de  Nija,  the  earliest  European 
who  trod  the  soil  of  New  Mexico,  travelled  for  five  days 
through  a  "valley  well  watered  and  in  a  high  state  of 
cultivation,  so  that  three  thousand  horsemen  might  have 
been  sustained  there."  Another  sixteenth-century  visit- 
or saw  corn-fields  "  watered  by  a  small  river  which  flowed 
near  by,  along  the  banks  of  which  were  growing  great 
beds  of  roses,  similar  to  those  of  Castile."  Many  a  tour- 
ist on  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  has  seen  the  in- 
dustrious Pueblo  Indians  at  work  in  their  fields  about 
Laguna.  The  travellers  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago  looked  upon  these  same  fields,  which  were  irrigated 
then  precisely  as  now,  and  as  they  probably  had  been  for 
centuries  before. 

New  Mexico  is  much  less  favored  in  its  water  supply 
than  the  northern  States  of  the  arid  region.  Many  of 
its  streams  are  torrential  and  intermittent  in  character, 
carrying  water  in  floods  at  some  seasons  and  exhibiting 
dry  channels  when  moisture  is  most  needed.  A  large 
portion  of  the  water  supply,  when  the  irrigation  iudus- 

888 


THE    AWAKENING    OF    NEW    MEXICO 

try  shall  bo  fully  developed,  will  bo  obtained  by  storage 
and  from  underground  sources.  This  process  has  al- 
ready begun,  but  its  operations  will  be  much  extended. 
Scattered  all  over  the  territory  arc  the  petty  ditches  of 
that  numerous  Mexican  and  Indian  population  which 
lives  in  serene  peace  and  comfort  upon  the  fruits  of  its 
unambitious  efforts  at  tilling  the  soil. 

The  important  streams  are  the  San  Juan  in  the  north- 
western corner  of  the  Territory,  the  Eio  Grande,  which 
flows  through  the  central  portion  from  Colorado  to  Mex- 
ico, and  the  Rio  Pecos  in  the  southeast.  These  streams 
and  their  tributaries  furnish  the  basis  of  the  modern  ir- 
rigation industry  of  New  Mexico. 

The  northwestern  part  of  the  Territory  is  a  pictu- 
resque and  promising  region,  fortunate  alike  in  mineral 
and  water  resources,  in  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  and  the 
charm  of  its  climate.  A  number  of  small  irrigation 
systems  have  been  constructed,  but  storage  will  be  re- 
quired before  the  opportunities  of  the  district  can  be  ex- 
tensively realized.  The  rivers  are  the  San  Juan  and  its 
tributaries,  the  most  important  of  these  being  tho  Pine, 
the  Animas,  and  the  La  Plata.  When  these  are  fully 
utilized,  thousands  of  small  farmers  will  be  able  to  estab- 
lish profitable  industries,  including  the  culture  of  finely 
flavored,  delicate  fruits.  They  will  find  home  markets 
in  surrounding  mining  camps  and  in  supplying  feed  for 
sheep  and  cattle  which  range  upon  the  public  pastures. 
Although  this  portion  of  the  Territory  is  now  remote 
from  the  main  lines  of  railroad  travel,  its  superior  advan- 
tages must  attract  the  attention  of  enterprise  and  im- 
migrants in  the  future  and  make  it  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  parts  of  the  future  State. 

229 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

New  Mexico  is  distinguished  by  large  land  grants 
dating  from  the  days  of  Spanish  control.  They  were 
naturally  located  along  the  watercourses,  in  what  ap- 
peared to  be  the  most  attractive  portions  of  the  field 
open  for  selection.  These  enormous  grants  have  ma- 
terially retarded  development,  for  the  reason  that  their 
titles  were  in  dispute  for  many  years  and  their  owners 
generally  "land  poor." 

One  of  the  most  important  of  these  properties  is  now 
known  as  the  Maxwell  Land  Grant,  and  constitutes  a 
principality  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  Territory, 
encroaching  slightly  upon  Colorado.  Large  capital  has 
been  used  in  the  development  of  the  mineral  and  agri- 
cultural resources  of  this  grant.  Its  principal  streams 
are  the  Vermejo  and  the  Cimarron.  Both  have  been 
utilized  extensively  in  connection  witli  systems  of  reser- 
voirs and  canals  which  are  notable  for  some  of  their 
engineering  features.  Large  areas  have  been  irrigated 
and  are  cultivated  in  various  crops. 

The  waters  of  the  Rio  Grande  have  been  diverted 
at  many  points  along  its  course.  This  river  rises  in  Col- 
orado, where  a  large  portion  of  its  supplies  are  taken 
out  for  use  in  the  San  Luis  Valley.  This  interferes  with 
New  Mexico  irrigation  during  the  stage  of  low  water  in 
the  summer.  When  the  stream  reaches  old  Mexico  it  is 
still  further  diminished,  with  the  result  of  making  in- 
ternational complications  on  the  south  even  more  vexa- 
tious than  the  interstate  troubles  which  it  creates  in  the 
north.  The  solution  of  both  difficulties  will  be  reached 
through  extensive  storage  arrangements  at  favorable 
points  in  the  valley,  and  some  wise  administrative  plan 
looking  to  the  equitable  distribution  of  the  much-vexed 

280 


THE    AWAKENING    OF    NEW    MEXICO 

stream.  The  building  of  great  reservoirs  along  the 
lower  course  of  the  Rio  Grande,  just  north  of  El  Paso, 
has  long  been  under  consideration  and  must  surely 
sometime  be  accomplished,  either  by  private  or  public 
enterprise.  The  soil  and  climate  are  exceptionally  fa- 
vorable to  the  higher  forms  of  tho  irrigation  industry, 
and  its  possibilities  will  be  quickly  realized  when  the 
question  of  storing  and  distributing  tho  water  shall  be 
settled  in  the  right  way.  Tho  character  of  these  possi- 
bilities may  already  be  dimly  discerned  in  the  place 
where  Texas  reaches  out  a  slender  finger  of  prosperity 
below  El  Paso.  Here  the  Mexicans  have  made  a  beauti- 
ful agricultural  and  horticultural  district,  and  live  with 
an  enviable  degree  of  comfort  and  thrift,  though  their 
methods  arc  crude  and  ancient. 

Much  the  most  notable  irrigation  development  in  New 
Mexico  is  that  which  has  been  accomplished  since  1890 
in  the  Pecos  Valley.  It  is  in  the  southeastern  quarter 
of  the  Territory,  bordering  upon  tho  Staked  Plains  of 
western  Texas.  No  other  locality  in  the  arid  region  has 
had  the  benefit  of  such  daring  enterprise  and  dauntless 
faith  as  have  been  lavished  upon  this,  originally  one  of 
the  most  forbidding  and  unpromising  of  western  valleys. 
By  sheer  force  of  money  it  has  been  translated  from  a 
semi-barbarous  stock-range,  fit  only  to  support  lean  cat- 
tle, to  an  attractive  field  for  settlement,  where  thousands 
of  families  can  make  their  homes  and  win  a  certain  living 
from  the  soil. 

Before  irrigation  was  invoked  the  region  was  a  social 
and  moral  desert  as  well  as  a  waste  of  arid  land.  It  was 
the  home  of  outlaws  and  the  scene  of  frontier  conflict. 
"Billy  the  Kid"  was  the  perfect  fruit  of  the  old  con- 

231 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ditions,  and  it  was  here  that  the  youthful  desperado  lived, 
fought,  and  died.  While  his  kind  are  not  yet  wholly 
extinct  in  the  neighborhood,  cattle  and  cattlemen  have 
fallen  back  before  the  advance  of  irrigation  and  railroads, 
of  towns  with  schools  and  churches,  and  of  planters  and 
home-builders.  Civilization  has  laid  its  hand  on  the 
Pecos  Valley,  and  a  crop  of  new  institutions  has  begun  to 
sprout  from  its  soil. 

The  valley  is  fortunate  beyond  any  other  part  of  the 
Territory  in  its  water  supplies.  The  Pccos  river  and  its 
tributaries  drain  a  vast  watershed  and  furnish  a  perennial 
flow  of  large  dimensions.  This  has  been  reinforced  by 
huge  reservoirs,  of  which  one  is  the  second  largest  irriga- 
tion reservoir  in  the  world.  Besides  these  facilities,  the 
valley  is  blessed  with  extraordinary  springs  of  flowing 
water,  with  artesian  basins,  and  with  underground  supplies 
that  may  be  lifted  to  the  surface  at  comparatively  small 
expense.  With  splendid  disregard  for  immediate  finan- 
cial returns,  these  supplies  have  been  utilized  and  led 
over  the  valley  by  a  thousand  miles  of  canals  and  ditches. 
The  same  liberal  enterprise  built  a  railroad  from  the 
Texas  and  Pacific  line  northward  for  a  distance  of  two 
hundred  miles,  and  later  still  farther,  to  a  connection 
with  the  Santa  Fe  system,  established  towns  witli  mod- 
ern facilities,  and  acquired  large  tracts  of  irrigable  hind. 
These  improvements  have  succeeded  one  another  in  rapid 
succession,  and  cost,  in  the  aggregate,  over  five  million 
dollars. 

Lying  in  an  altitude  varying  from  three  thousand  to 
three  thousand  five  hundred  feet,  but  in  the  latitude 
of  the  extreme  south,  the  Pecos  Valley  enjoys  a  good 

climate.     Its  winters  arc  short  and  not  severe,  thoticrh 

..,, 


THE    AWAKENING    OF    NEW     MEXICO 

the  mcrcnry  falls  below  freezing  and  thin  ico  is  formed 
on  still  water.  The  summer  days  are  hot,  as  throughout 
the  Southwest,  but  the  nights  are  invariably  comfortable, 
owing  to  the  elevation  of  the  country,  which  is  on  the 
high  plateau  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region.  Fields  can 
be  cultivated  almost  continuously  and  early  crops,  of 
vegetables  and  small  fruits  are  grown.  The  drawback 
about  the  climate  is  the  wind,  which  sometimes  de- 
velops into  sand-storms  of  considerable  severity.  With 
the  extension  of  the  cultivated  area  and  the  growth  of 
trees  this  disadvantage  will  be  minimized. 

The  valley  is  yet  so  new  to  cultivation  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  determine  the  limitation  of  its  products.  Tho 
chemical  qualities  of  the  soil  have  been  the  subject  of 
careful  study  by  experts,  and  gradually  the  people  aro 
learning  to  what  uses  different  districts  are  best  adapted. 
In  the  upper  portion  of  the  valley,  in  what  is  locally 
known  as  the  Roswell  country,  there  are  several  ranches 
which  have  been  cultivated  for  many  years.  These 
have  demonstrated  beyond  question  the  capabilities  of 
soil  and  climate  for  the  production  of  the  finest  apples, 
perfect  in  form,  flavor,  and  coloring.  This  fruit  is  so 
superior  to  that  which  is  seen  in  the  eastern  market 
that  there  can  be  no  question  but  what  it  will  be  a  source 
of  profit  to  the  small  planters  of  the  region.  The  lower 
valley  seems  more  favorable  to  delicate  fruits,  such  as 
peaches  and  apricots.  All  the  grasses,  cereals,  arid  vege- 
tables are  successful  throughout  the  length  of  the  valley. 
Sorghum  and  Egyptian  corn  are  favorite  crops,  being 
raised  for  fodder. 

One  feature  of  the  country  is  especially  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  settlers.  This  is  the  fact  that  the  best  of 

233 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

free  pastures  adjoins  the  irrigable  lands  on  either  hand, 
so  that  fine  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  could  be  profitably 
raised  in  connection  with  the  small-farming  industry. 
Raising  winter  fodder  on  their  irrigated  acres,  the  set- 
tlers could  readily  co-operate  in  the  management  of 
their  herds  during  the  range  season.  For  the  finest 
beef  and  mutton  there  is  abundant  demand  at  remu- 
nerative prices. 

The  latest  and  most  promising  industry  of  the  Pecos 
Valley  is  the  sugar-beet  culture  and  manufacture.  A 
series  of  experiments  demonstrated  that  the  conditions 
of  soil  and  climate  were  particularly  favorable  to  tho 
growth  of  beets.  It  had  already  been  demonstrated  in 
Utah  that  irrigation  permits  tho  most  scientific  culture 
of  the  crop.  As  this  valley  has  wanted  for  nothing  that 
money  could  buy,  a  sugar  factory  was  erected  near  Eddy 
in  1896,  and  the  farmers  gladly  co-operated  by  planting 
considerable  areas  to  beets.  The  result  of  the  first  year's 
crop  put  the  Pccos' Valley  at  the  head  of  sugar  countries 
in  the  matter  of  the  quality  of  its  production.  The  gen- 
eral average  of  all  beets  delivered  at  the  factory  in  car- 
load lots  showed  seventeen  per  cent,  of  sugar  in  the  beet, 
with  an  average  purity  of  over  eighty -four  per  cent. 
This  is  a  higher  percentage  of  actual  extraction  of 
pounds  of  sugar  to  pounds  of  beets  than  has  been  real- 
ized anywhere  else  in  the  world.  The  result  points  un- 
mistakably to  the  development  of  a  "  sugar  belt  "in  tin's 
region,  which  will  bo  a  striking  economic  advantage  if 
producers  do  not  make  tho  mistake  of  getting  into  tho 
fatal  groove  of  tho  single  crop,  as  has  been  so  largely  the 
case  elsewhere  with  tho  growers  of  wheat,  cotton,  corn, 
raisins,  and  oranges. 

MM 


THE    AWAKENING    OF    NEW    MEXICO 

The  chief  town  of  the  valley,  formerly  Eddy,  but  now 
called  Carlsbad,  enjoys  a  rising  popularity  as  the  resort 
of  invalids.  Valuable  medicinal  springs  have  been  dis- 
covered, and,  in  connection  with  the  climate,  render  the 
locality  quite  ideal  for  those  suffering  with  certain  dis- 
eases. 

The  resources  of  New  Mexico,  while  probably  not  as 
rich  as  those  of  more  northerly  States,  are  yet  diversified 
and  largely  undeveloped.  The  annual  output  of  gold 
and  silver  is  increasing,  and  seems  likely  to  do  so  in- 
definitely. A  fine  quality  of  coal  is  found  in  largo 
quantities,  and  is  an  important  item  of  regular  income. 
The  forest  area  is  considerable,  and  that  of  woodlands, 
useful  for  fuel  and  fencing,  much  more  extensive.  The 
mining  of  precious  stones,  which  dates  back  to  the 
Spanish  conquest,  is  a  flourishing  and  growing  industry. 
The  turquoise  mines  are  particularly  rich  and  profitable. 
Though  the  amount  of  production  is  closely  guarded,  it  is 
known  to  be  large,  while  the  quality  of  the  stone  is  quite 
equal  to  that  of  Russia,  Persia,  and  the  East  Indies. 

The  social  fabric  of  the  Territory  is  a  curious  blend- 
ing of  Mexican  peons,  of  town-bnilding  Indians,  of  hardy 
frontiersmen  engaged  in  mining  and  stock-raising,  and 
of  enterprising  new-comers  who  believe  in  the  future  of 
the  country.  Of  these  elements  the  Mexicans  are  much 
fche  most  numerous.  They  do  not  differ  materially  from 
their  kinsmen  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
Living  in  scattered  settlements  along  the  mountain 
streams,  they  enjoy  a  comfortable  existence  in  return  for 
their  humble  labor.  The  Indian  population  includes 
the  Pueblos,  the  Zunis,  and  the  Navajos,  and  is  mar- 
vellously interesting,  and  usually  peaceful  and  industri- 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

cms.  The  growth  of  the  white  population  has  been  slow, 
but  will  increase  rapidly  with  the  development  of  irriga- 
tion and  the  settlement  of  vexatious  problems  which 
have  long  surrounded  the  land  grants  and  water  appro- 
priations. 

New  Mexico  is  one  of  the  American  communities 
whose  greatness  is  of  the  future.  Well  endowed  with 
raw  materials,  it  awaits  the  impulse  to  be  imparted  by 
a  new  century  and  the  pressure  of  an  outreaching  civ- 
ilization. 


CHAPTER   X 
THE   BUDDING   CIVILIZATION   OF  ARIZONA 

ARIZONA  is  a  land  apart.  With  the  single  exception 
of  southeastern  California,  it  differs  in  many  respects 
from  all  other  sections  of  western  America.  This  is  es- 
pecially true  of  all  those  portions  of  the  Territory  which 
will  sustain  the  densest  future  population  and  develop 
the  characteristic  institutions  of  the  country. 

Speaking  of  its  atmosphere — the  product  of  its  pe- 
culiar climatic  conditions  and  physical  environment  — 
Whitelaw  Reid  has  said :  "  It  seems  to  have  about  the 
same  bracing  and  exhilarating  qualities  as  the  air  of  the 
Great  Sahara  Desert  in  northern  Africa,  or  of  the  des- 
ert about  Mount  Sinai,  in  Arabia.  It  is  much  drier 
than  in  the  part  of  Morocco,  Algiers,  or  Tunis  usually 
visited,  and  drier  than  any  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
north  of  the  First  Cataract.  It  seems  to  me  about  the 
same  in  quality  as  the  air  on  the  Nile  between  Aesouan 
and  Wady- Haifa,  but  somewhat  cooler/' 

This  description  of  the  Arizona  air,  which  is  remark- 
ably happy,  may  be  accepted  as  a  key  to  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  country.  It  is  a  semi-tropical  desert,  like 
the  region  about  the  southern  and  eastern  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  where  civilization  was  born  of  the  ancient 
art  of  irrigation.  This  is  said  with  reference  to  the 

237 


N QUEST    OF 

southern  and  western  parts  of  the  Territory,  which  aro 
drained  by  the  Gila  and  Colorado  rivers.  Northern  Ari- 
zona is  distinguished  by  its  mines,  its  notable  forests, 
and  the  indescribable  grandeurs  of  the  famous  Colorado 
canyon.  The  southeastern  quarter,  which  adjoins  New 
Mexico,  is  a  great  pasture,  bearing  scanty  or  generous 
crops  of  nutritious  wild  grasses,  according  as  the  season 
is  dry  or  wet. 

The  Salt  River  Valley  is  the  glory  of  Arizona.  Ap- 
proaching it  from  either  of  the  transcontinental  rail- 
ways the  traveller  sees  naught  but  the  gray  desert  soil, 
marked  by  the  gnarled  branches  of  the  mesquite  and  the 
slender  pillar  of  the  cactus.  Even  the  mountain-sides 
appear  to  be  devoid  of  verdure  and  tanned  to  a  dark 
brown  by  the  sunshine  of  centuries.  But  suddenly  all 
the  beauties  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  burst  upon  the  aston- 
ished gaze  of  the  visitor.  Wherever  the  waters  of  irri- 
gation have  moistened  the  desert,  and  man  has  planted 
the  seed  of  grass,  flower,  or  tree,  the  most  luxuriant 
vegetation  has  sprung  from  the  soil  to  revolutionize  the 
appearance  of  the  country. 

The  capital  city  of  Phoenix — risen  from  the  ashes  of  a 
forgotten  people — is  the  pulsating  heart  of  the  new  life 
of  Arizona.  Here  are  modern  business  blocks,  hand- 
some public  buildings,  busy  stores,  a  promising  uni- 
versity, and  hundreds  of  beautiful  homes  resting  under 
the  shade  of  palm,  magnolia,  and  pepper-trees.  Tucson 
and  Yiuna,  though  thriving  and  populous,  are  Mexican 
in  architecture  and  habits.  Prcscott,  Flagstaff,  and  nu- 
merous other  communities  in  the  higher  altitude  are  the 
products  of  the  mining  industry.  But  Phomix  is  distinct- 
ly modern,  and  almost  wholly  the  oilspring  of  irrigation. 

238 


BUDDING    CIVILIZATION    OF    ARIZONA 

The  Salt  river  is  the  largest  tributary  of  the  Gila.  It 
lias  been  the  scene  of  active  irrigation  enterprise  since 
18G7,  but  particularly  during  the  last  ten  years.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact  that  the  works  first  built  followed  the 
lines  of  prehistoric  canals.  Reclamation  has  been  ex- 
tended to  both  sides  of  the  valley,  but  cultivation  is 
oldest  and  much  the  most  extensive  on  the  northern 
side,  around  Phoonix.  Here  a  number  of  canals  were 
consolidated  into  a  single  system,  the  managers  of  which 
have  made  improvements  and  extensions  year  by  year, 
and  gradually  evolved  a  work  of  great  perfection  and 
completeness. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  river  a  similar  consolidation 
has  occurred.  Here  settlement  was  begun  in  1878  by 
Mormon  colonists,  who  founded  the  charming  place  now 
known  as  Mesa  City.  There  are  several  independent 
irrigation  systems  upon  this  side  of  the  valley,  the  most 
important  of  which  is  the  Highland  Canal,  which  runs 
along  a  high  level  and  waters  thirty  thousand  acres  of 
valuable  land.  Water-power  is  obtained  in  connection 
with  the  irrigation  canals  on  both  sides  of  the  valley, 
and  electrical  power  is  applied  both  to  lighting  and 
transportation. 

Tributaries  of  the  Salt  river  flowing  from  the  moun- 
tains on  the  north,  notably  the  Rio  Verde  and  the  Agua 
Fria,  will  furnish  water  for  new  and  large  enterprises. 
Storage  is  the  feature  of  these  works,  and  reservoirs 
have  been  constructed  in  a  number  of  instances.  Both 
on  the  upper  and  lower  courses  of  the  Gila  river  im- 
portant irrigation  canals  are  planned,  and  a  number 
have  been  completed.  Much  difficulty  has  been  experi- 
enced in  building  enduring  dams  along  this  erratic 

239 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

stream.  Sudden  and  powerful  Hoods  sweep  down  the 
valley  during  the  season  of  melting  snows,  and  it  is  the 
nicest  engineering  problem  to  make  constructions  which 
will  stand  the  test. 

Alike  in  the  Gila  and  Salt  river  valleys  the  agricult- 
ural districts  suffer  for  lack  of  water  during  the  dry 
summer  season,  when  water  is  most  needed.  The  only 
possible  solution  of  the  problem  will  be  the  construction 
of  large  reservoir  systems  at  the  mountain  sources  of 
the  streams.  Nature  has  provided  phenomenal  facilities 
for  such  storage  works,  but  the  opportunity  has  not  been 
utilized,  owing  to  the  large  cost  involved  and  to  the  fact 
that  no  single  company  could  afford  to  make  improve- 
ments which  would  be  equally  beneficial  to  all  who 
draw  supplies  from  these  streams.  The  work  is  of  such 
importance  as  to  justify  an  expenditure  of  public  money, 
especially  as  large  areas  of  public  lands  would  be  made 
habitable  in  consequence. 

The  enormous  water  supply  which  now  flows  uselessly 
to  the  Gulf  of  California  through  the  channel  of  the  Col- 
orado river  must  be  extensively  availed  of  in  time.  Mor- 
mon settlers  have  reclaimed  small  valleys  on  the  Little 
Colorado  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Territory,  and  ex- 
tensive plans,  looking  to  the  use  of  the  larger  river,  have 
been  made.  Thus  far  the  most  notable  development  in 
this  region  is  at  Yuma,  where  water  is  elevated  to  the 
heights  above  the  town  by  pumping  machinery.  Enough 
has  been  done  in  this  locality  to  demonstrate  the  value 
of  the  soil  and  climato  for  the  production  of  the  finest 
fruits,  including  table  grapes,  which  arc  laid  down  in  San 
Francisco  before  the  California  product  is  in  the  market, 
and  the  best  varieties  of  oranges  and  lemons. 

240 


BUDDING    CIVILIZATION    OF    ARIZONA 

The  climate  of  Arizona  varies  widely  with  different 
altitudes.  In  those  portions  of  the  Territory  most  favor- 
able to  settlement,  including  the  Salt  river  and  Gila 
valleys,  the  summer  weather  is  as  trying  as  the  winter  is 
charming.  People  get  used  to  it,  but  it  is  rather  a  dis- 
tressing process.  While  the  summer  heat  is  by  no  means 
unhealthful  or  a  fatal  obstacle  to  settlement,  it  is  un- 
questionably a  serious  drawback. 

In  the  Salt  River  Valley  all  classes  of  fruits  have  been 
tested  sufficiently  to  furnish  reliable  conclusions  as  to 
the  range  of  production.  The  climate  is  semi-tropical 
and  the  products  similar  to  those  of  the  lowland  districts 
of  California  and  the  region  about  the  Mediterranean. 

The  government  reports  show  that  the  highest  and 
lowest  temperatures  at  Phoenix  averaged  for  eight  years  as 
follows  :  November,  78}  and  42  ;  December,  73}  and  36£  ; 
January,  65}  and  32 ;  February,  71}  and  35}  ;  March, 
81}  and  41;  April,  86}  and  46.  Orange -trees  success- 
fully withstand  a  temperature  of  28°  above  zero.  Hence, 
it  is  no  surprise  to  find  them  growing  successfully  in  the 
Salt  River  Valley,  at  Yuma,  and  elsewhere  in  central  and 
southern  Arizona.  The  determination  of  the  exact  lim- 
its of  the  citrus  belt  is  a  nice  problem  in  any  country.  A 
certain  elevation  above  the  river,  and  a  certain  amount 
of  protection  from  the  wind  and  from  the  rising  sun 
are  essential.  The  most  favored  spots  are  usually  those 
which  are  screened  from  the  first  rays  of  the  morning 
sun  by  a  background  of  eastern  hills.  This  condition 
permits  a  gradual  warming  of  the  atmosphere,  so  that  if 
there  has  been  a  slight  frost  during  the  night  no  serious 
damage  is  done  to  fruit  or  tree. 

Wherever  oranges  can  be  grown  at  all,  the  area  suitable 
241 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

for  their  production  is  likely  to  be  exaggerated  by  those 
who  sell  climate  by  the  acre.  While  the  orange  districts 
of  Arizona  are  not  as  yet  perfectly  defined,  there  is  no 
longer  any  question  of  the  production  of  citrus  fruit, 
nor  as  to  its  quality  and  the  early  date  at  which  it  ripens. 
It  anticipates  the  southern  California  crop  in  the  market, 
though  not  the  crop  of  northern  California,  which  is  sev- 
eral weeks  ahead  of  the  southern  product. 

Wherever  the  orange  can  be  cultivated,  the  less  tender 
semi-tropical  fruits — figs,  olives,  almonds,  pomegranates 
— may  be  certainly  counted  upon  to  grow  even  more  sure- 
ly and  over  a  large  area.  The  largest  fig  orchard  in  the 
United  States,  and  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world,  is 
located  in  the  Salt  River  Valley.  This  industry  has  not 
yet  proven  profitable,  either  in  Arizona  or  California, 
speaking  broadly,  for  the  reason  that  our  people  have 
not  entirely  mastered  the  art  of  curing  and  packing. 
The  other  products  which  have  been  mentioned  are 
thoroughly  successful.  So  also  are  the  finest  qualities 
of  raisin,  wine,  and  table  grapes,  and  of  the  deciduous 
fruits,  such  as  peaches,  apricots,  prunes,  pears,  and  ap- 
ples. All  vegetables  and  small  fruits  yield  largely.  With 
better  railroad  facilities  and  rates,  Arizona  would  be  a 
strong  competitor  of  Florida  and  the  West  Indies  in  the 
shipment  of  early  vegetables  to  eastern  and  northern 
markets. 

The  major  proportion  of  the  irrigated  land  is  tilled  in 
large  farms  devoted  to  grasses  and  cereals.  Alfalfa  is 
the  favorite  fodder  crop,  and  the  valleys  are  becoming 
great  feeding  grounds  for  cattle,  horses,  hogs,  and  sheep. 
While  this  phase  of  the  agricultural  industry  has  been 
prosperous,  it  by  no  mraiis  represents  the  better  possi- 

242 


BUDDING    CIVILIZATION    OF    ARIZONA 

bilitics  of  Arizona.  The  conditions  of  climate,  of  soil, 
and  of  irrigation  arc  all  extremely  favorable  to  the  in- 
tensive cultivation  of  small  areas. 

Ten  acres  in  southern  Arizona  constitute  a  good-sized 
farm.  Variously  planted  to  vegetables,  small  fruits,  or- 
chard, and  grass,  and  cultivated  by  the  most  scientific 
methods,  such  a  farm  should  yield  a  far  better  living, 
and  make  a  surer  provision  for  old  age,  than  one  hun- 
dred acres  in  the  eastern  and  middle  States,  which 
depend  upon  rainfall,  and  consequently  produce  the 
cheaper  class  of  crops. 

Lacking  nothing  in  general  advantages,  Arizona  is 
deficient  in  the  higher  forms  of  industrial  and  social 
development,  which  have  made  portions  of  California 
the  paradise  of  the  common  people,  and  which  arc  be- 
ginning to  shape  institutions  throughout  the  arid  region. 
The  explanation  is  that  the  Territory  is  just  passing 
from  the  frontier  stage  into  the  first  period  of  real  civ- 
ilization. The  conquest  of  the  desert  has  been  well  be- 
gun, and  the  broad  foundation  of  an  intense  economic 
life  substantially  laid.  It  remains  for  the  future  to 
build  the  superstructure. 

The  people  of  Arizona  have  been  drawn  from  many 
different  sources,  and  from  more  than  one  race,  but 
the  pushing  American  element  is  distinctly  dominant. 
While  there  are  many  of  the  lower  class  of  Mexicans, 
they  are  much  less  numerous  here  than  in  New  Mex- 
ico, and  much  less  widely  diffused  over  the  Territory. 
The  Indians,  who  arc  seen  everywhere,  even  in  the 
best  settled  districts,  are  now  mostly  inoffensive,  and 
even  industrious  in  many  cases.  Like  the  Mexican 
peons,  they  are  useful  laborers  in  the  simpler  agricult- 

243 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

ural  tasks.  The  warlike  tribes  are  closely  confined  to 
their  reservations,  and  no  longer  constitute  a  menace  to 
settlement. 

Arizona  is  developing  a  spirit  of  intense  local  pride  as 
marked  as  that  of  Colorado.  This  is  the  best  guaranty 
of  its  ultimate  greatness.  It  is  a  good  recommendation 
for  any  country  when  those  who  know  it  best  exhibit 
the  most  confidence  in  its  future. 


part  ffourtb 
THE  ARMY  OF  THE  HALF-EMPLOYED 

"Your  fate  I  believe  to  be  certain,  though  it  is  deferred  by  a 
physical  cause.  As  long  as  you  have  a  boundless  extent  of  fertile 
and  unoccupied  laud,  your  laboring  population  will  be  far  more 
at  ease  than  the  laboring  population  of  the  Old  World.  But  the 
time  will  come  when  New  England  will  be  as  thickly  populated  as 
the  Old  World.  Wages  will  be  as  low  and  will  fluctuate  as  much 
with  you  as  with  us.  You  will  have  your  Birminghams  and 
Manchesters,  and  in  these  Birminghams  and  Mauchesters  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  artisans  will  assuredly  be  sometime  out  of  work. 
Then  your  institutions  will  fairly  be  brought  to  the  test." — LORD 
MACAULA.Y  to  an  American  friend. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  SURPLUS   PEOPLE 

THE  settlement  of  the  United  States  has  been  largely 
a  story  of  foreign  immigration.  While  the  movement 
of  population  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New  has  not 
ceased,  the  settlement  of  new  areas  during  the  coming 
century  will  be  in  marked  degree  a  movement  of  do- 
mestic immigration.  Foreign  population  no  longer  set- 
tles extensively  upon  the  agricultural  lands  of  the  West. 
It  remains  in  the  cities  of  the  seaboard,  making  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  San  Francisco  cosmopolitan 
communities,  and  submerging  the  Puritan  traditions  of 
Boston  under  a  wave  of  Celtic  dominance.  It  fills  the 
coal-mining  districts  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Illinois 
with  Hungarian  and  Bohemian  laborers.  It  replaces  the 
native  artisans  of  New  England  manufacturing  towns 
with  Canadians,  Italians,  and  Armenians.  It  swells  the 
population  of  the  Lake  Cities,  such  as  Buffalo,  Cleve- 
land, Detroit,  Chicago,  and  Milwaukee.  It  is  thus  that 
the  strong  current  of  foreign  immigration,  which  had  a 
large  part  in  making  the  Middle  West  and  gave  a  pow- 
erful impulse  to  the  growth  of  interior  cities,  expends 
itself  in  these  days. 

There  is  a  surplus  population  chiefly  in  cities  and 
towns  east  of  the  Mississippi  river.  While  much  has 

247 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

been  said  of  the  Army  of  the  Unemployed,  the  fluctuat- 
ing numbers  of  the  utterly  idle  is  no  true  measure  of  our 
surplus  population.  There  is  an  infinitely  larger  element 
of  half-employed  and  semi-prosperous,  and  it  is  from  the 
ranks  of  these  that  the  colonizing  hosts  of  the  future  will 
mostly  bo  drawn.  The  very  poor  constitute  a  small  cle- 
ment in  all  communities,  and  however  urgent  their  claim 
upon  charity,  their  situation  is  of  far  less  importance  to 
the  peace  and  stability  of  society  than  the  conditions 
of  life  and  labor  for  the  masses  who  do  the  world's 
work.  The  future  civilization  is  to  be  discovered  at 
neither  of  the  social  poles — that  of  the  very  rich  or  that 
of  the  very  poor — but  in  the  continental  expanse  of  hu- 
man life  that  lies  between  these  two  extremes. 

The  surplus  population  who  will  occupy  and  develop 
the  waste-places  during  the  coming  century  are  the  men 
and  women  of  overcrowded  eastern  industries,  stores, 
and  professions,  and,  in  smaller  measure,  of  unprofitable 
eastern  farms.  To  a  very  largo  extent  they  are  of  the 
best  native  stock.  Their  presence  in  the  ranks  of  the 
half  -  employed  and  semi  -  prosperous  is  due  to  several 
leading  causes — to  the  wonderful  invention  of  labor-sav- 
ing machinery,  which  does  the  work  of  human  hands 
without  charge  for  food  or  clothes ;  to  the  competition 
of  foreign  immigrants  content  with  less  wages  and  a 
lower  standard  of  living  ;  to  the  concentration  of  capi- 
tal and  the  conduct  of  all  lines  of  business  upon  so  largo 
a  scale  that  small  men  cannot  survive  in  the  race  with 
them ;  to  the  cessation  of  the  rapid  settlement  of  new 
areas  in  the.  West,  which  made  constant  demands  upon 
the  products  of  eastern  spindles,  looms,  and  lathes;  to 
the  natural  movement  of  the  greater  manufacturing  lines 

248 


THE    SURPLUS    PEOPLE 

from  old  industrial  centres  nearer  to  raw  material  and  to 
consumers. 

Some  of  these  causes  are  so  well  known  as  to  make  it 
unprofitable  to  do  more  than  barely  suggest  them,  but 
others  have  not  been  generally  studied  in  the  light  of 
causes  of  future  domestic  emigration.  For  instance,  it 
is  often  claimed  that  invention  and  labor  -  saving  ma- 
chinery create  a  demand  for  as  many  new  workmen  as 
they  displace.  Grant  that  this  is  so,  and  we  do  not  sat- 
isfactorily answer  the  question  as  to  what  is  to  become  of 
the  men  and  women  who  lose  their  means  of  livelihood. 
Some  of  them  are  readily  absorbed  into  the  new  indus- 
tries, but  by  no  means  all.  One  hundred  printers  may 
be  suddenly  thrown  out  of  work  in  a  given  community 
by  the  advent  of  type-setting  machines.  They  cannot  all 
turn  immediately  to  employment  in  a  bicycle  or  automo- 
bile factory.  The  displaced  printers  may  be  in  Kansas 
City  and  the  new  factories  in  Baltimore.  Besides,  it  is 
the  young  mechanic,  with  no  trade  and  habits  to  un- 
learn, who  is  in  most  demand  for  the  new  industry. 

These  conditions  make  life  constantly  harder  for  those 
best  equipped  with  experience  and  most  likely  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  a  little  capital  in  the  shape  of  a  home  or  sav- 
ings-bank deposit — that  is,  the  middle-aged.  So  it  hap- 
pens that  the  ingenious  machine  which  may  lighten  the 
cost  of  an  article  of  common  necessity,  and  by  so  cheap- 
ening production  even  cause  the  enlargement  of  a  factory 
and  enhance  the  prosperity  of  a  given  local  community, 
almost  inevitably  creates  recruits  for  the  Army  of  the 
Half -employed.  This  process  has  been  going  on  rapidly 
during  the  past  generation,  and  made  thousands  of  peo- 
ple discontented  and  apprehensive — hence,  ripe  for  some 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

new  movement  of  colonization  like  those  which,  during 
the  past  two  centuries,  peopled  different  sections  of  the 
United  States.  For  it  is  ever  the  intelligent  discontented 
who  make  colonies  and  plant  institutions. 

As  with  labor-saving  machinery,  so  with  the  concen- 
tration of  capital,  which  is  the  phenomenal  economic 
movement  of  the  hour.  Fifty  factories  under  one  con- 
trol ;  a  few  great  and  attractive  stores  dealing  in  all  lines 
of  merchandise;  ten  railroad  systems  consolidated  into 
one,  and  that  one  stretching  its  arms  from  ocean  to 
ocean — all  this  may,  and  probably  does,  make  for  cheaper 
goods  and  better  service,  for  more  scientific  business 
methods,  and  for  the  progress  of  civilization  in  the  end. 
But  the  intermediate  process  of  adjustment  to  new  con- 
ditions is  a  hardship  to  multitudes  of  men  and  women 
in  many  ways.  It  lessens  the  demands  for  labor  in  nu- 
merous local  instances,  and  the  result  is  a  large  aggre- 
gate of  discontent.  "What  is  infinitely  more  important, 
it  makes  it  increasingly  difficult  for  men  to  lead  inde- 
pendent lives  and  make  independent  livings. 

The  startling  and  disturbing  aspect  of  our  new  eco- 
nomic development  is  the  downfall  of  the  small  man. 
Modern  production  demands  the  largo  factory  and  ex- 
pensive machinery ;  hence,  great  capital.  Modern  trade, 
especially  in  the  principal  cities,  requires  an  immense  de- 
partment-store, with  a  host  of  poorly  paid  employes; 
hence,  great  capital.  Modern  transportation  requires 
railroad  systems  so  extended  and  diffused  as  to  give 
absolute  control  of  a  certain  territory';  hence,  great 
capital. 

When  production  was  conducted  upon  a  small  scale 
men  of  small  means  found  no  difficulty  in  becoming 

250 


THE    SURPLUS    PEOPLE 

manufacturers.  The  enterprising  shoemaker — to  illus- 
trate— could  build  u  little  shop  in  his  yard,  purchase  a 
cheap  kit  of  tools,  and  manufacture  in  a  small  way.  If 
he  had  taste,  thrift,  and  industry,  he  prospered,  and 
perhaps  built  up  a  large  business.  The  man  who  did 
that  thirty  years  ago  could  not  hope  to  do  it  to-day, 
simply  because  the  conditions  are  such  as  to  prevent  him 
from  getting  his  first  foothold.  As  a  petty  manufact- 
urer he  could  not  possibly  compete  with  the  great  man- 
ufacturers employing  large  capital  and  costly  machin- 
ery. His  only  recourse  is  to  become  an  employe  of  a 
richer  man  or  corporation.  He  is  denied  even  the  chance 
to  bring  himself  to  the  test  of  the  rule  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  among  employers  and  manufacturers,  be- 
cause he  cannot  be  born  into  that  exclusive  family.  The 
unborn  have  no  opportunity  of  survival.  As  with  the  shoo 
industry,  so  with  most  other  common  lines  of  production. 

The  decline  of  the  small  tradesmen  in  great  cities  is  a 
pitiful,  even  if  familiar,  spectacle.  Sixth  Avenue  in 
New  York  furnishes  a  luminous  instance.  This  thor- 
oughfare used  to  be  a  paradise  of  small  merchants,  deal- 
ing in  their  several  lines  of  goods,  and  winning  a  fail- 
average  prosperity  in  the  midst  of  lively  competition. 
To-day  a  few  great  stores  stand  like  monuments  in  that 
graveyard  of  small  merchants.  Competition  between 
the  old  conditions  and  the  new  is  impossible. 

Even  the  professions  are  not  exempt  from  the  influ- 
ences which  have  wrought  such  changes  in  the  lives  of 
small  capitalists  and  skilled  workmen.  Self-respecting 
young  men  and  women  do  not  willingly  and  deliberately 
set  out  upon  lives  which  deny  them  independence  of 
thought  and  action,  and  no  opportunity  to  rise  except  as 

251 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

salaried  employes,  submissively  doing  the  will  of  other 
men.  Multitudes  of  them  avail  themselves  of  the  chances 
of  liberal  education  which  benevolence  has  so  plentifully 
scattered  over  the  land.  They  prepare  to  win  what  they 
conceive  to  be  the  easy  rewards  of  professional  careers 
as  lawyers,  physicians,  teachers,  musicians,  and  so  on. 
While  there  is  yet  plenty  of  room  at  the  top,  it  is  much 
easier  to  find  the  way  to  the  middle  or  the  bottom  of 
the  list.  The  result  is  a  surplus  of  professional  people 
in  every  walk,  especially  in  cities  and  towns  of  our  older 
States.  Religious  journals  complain  of  an  over-produc- 
tion even  of  preachers,  ministers,  and  missionaries. 

Of  the  fact  of  surplus  people  available  for  the  con- 
quest of  Undeveloped  America  there  is,  therefore,  no 
question  whatever.  Never  was  there  an  army  better 
equipped  or  more  eager  for  its  task.  In  character  it  is 
almost  cosmopolitan,  but  with  the  strongest  Anglo- 
Saxon  predominance.  It  has  been  educated  to  a  stand- 
ard not  dreamed  of  by  any  colonizing  host  of  the  past, 
thanks  to  a  system  of  common  and  high  schools  of 
which  the  latter  approximate  the  university  education  of 
fifty  years  ago.  Collectively,  it  is  by  no  means  destitute 
of  pecuniary  resources,  for  it  represents  a  vast  aggregate 
of  savings  and  property.  It  is  animated  by  the  moving 
cause  of  all  successful  and  epoch-making  emigrations, 
the  desire  to  better  the  conditions  of  living  for  its  indi- 
vidual members. 

So  conditioned  and  equipped,  these  children  of  a  race 
of  world-conquerors  and  republic-builders — these  sur- 
plus men  and  women  of  America — stand  with  their  faces 
to  the  morning  of  the  new  century,  magnificently  fit  to 
do  the  work  of  their  day  and  generation. 


CHAPTER   II 
WHY  THE   PEOPLE   DO   NOT  GO   TO  THE   LAND 

FLANKED  upon  one  side  by  economic  conditions  which 
deny  them  prosperity,  and  upon  the  other  by  great  natu- 
ral resources  which  only  await  human  genius  and  energy, 
why  do  not  the  surplus  people  go  to  the  surplus  land  ? 

First  and  chiefly,  because  they  lack  the  necessary  capi- 
tal. To  move  across  the  continent  and  make  a  new 
home  in  a  new  country  requires  a  working  fund  of  one 
thousand  or  two  thousand  dollars — and  the  latter  is  much 
the  safer  sum.  It  may  almost  be  said  that  those  who 
need  to  move  cannot  do  so,  while  those  who  can  move 
do  not  need  to.  This  is  not  literally  true,  because  there 
are  doubtless  thousands  of  families  commanding  a  capi- 
tal insufficient  to  enable  them  to  engage  in  trade  or 
manufacture  under  modern  conditions,  and  likewise  in- 
sufficient to  yield  support  when  invested,  yet  quite 
enough  to  establish  them  comfortably  as  settlers  on 
irrigated  land,  provided  their  capital  be  supplement- 
ed by  the  wise  use  of  their  own  labor.  But  there  are 
thousands — perhaps  millions — of  families  who  have  ev- 
ery qualification  required  for  successful  settlers  except 
money.  Their  ability  to  perform  productive  labor  is, 
indeed,  capital  of  a  most  essential  kind,  but  without  a 
certain  amount  of  cash  it  is  capital  which  is  unavailable. 

233 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Popular  ignorance  of  the  West  is  another  potent  cause 
which  keeps  the  willing  men  away  from  the  waiting 
land.  Undeveloped  America  is  a  vague  and  mysterious 
quantity  to  the  masses  of  our  people.  It  curiously  hap- 
pens that  they  are  better  informed  about  Africa  and  the 
regions  of  the  North  Pole.  So  much  as  is  known  about 
these  latter  localities  has  been  published  in  attractive 
form  and  generally  read  by  intelligent  people.  Then, 
too,  somewhat  upon  the  principle  that  every  boy  finds 
another's  sister  more  interesting  than  his  own,  foreign 
lands  have  a  claim  upon  the  attention  of  our  people  su- 
perior to  that  of  our  own.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  senior 
class  at  Harvard  or  Yale  could  pass  a  good  examination 
as  to  the  history  and  resources  of  such  mighty  States  as 
Montana,  Idaho,  or  Nevada,  yet  there  would  be  little 
risk  in  asking  them  for  a  good  account  of  the  lives  and 
surroundings  of  Paul  Kruger  and  Cecil  Rhodes,  or  for 
the  details  of  Nansen's  voyage  to  the  Pole.  If  this  be 
true  of  the  liberally  educated,  who  are  surrounded  by 
all  facilities  for  studying  the  undeveloped  parts  of  their 
own  country,  no  apology  need  bo  made  for  those  who 
enjoy  no  such  opportunities. 

But  if  there  is  lack  of  information  about  the  West, 
there  is  no  lack  of  misinformation.  Vast  quantities  of 
advertising  matter  have  been  sent  broadcast  by  railroads, 
land  companies,  and  commercial  organizations.  This 
class  of  reading  matter  has  always  been  prepared  in  the 
interest  of  certain  localities,  and  comes  under  the  head 
of  "boom  literature."  While  some  of  it  has  been  of 
high  character  of  its  kind,  the  general  ciTect  of  such  ad- 
vertising has  been  disappointing  both  to  those  who  issued 
to  those  who  read  it. 


THE    PEOPLE    AND    THE    LAND 

What  a  new  country  needs  is  gradual  growth  and 
sober  development  of  its  resources  on  sound  economic 
lines.  What  a  settler  wants  is  a  calm  and  candid  state- 
ment of  the  opportunities  existing  in  the  locality  tow- 
ards which  he  is  looking,  and  a  perfectly  truthful  account 
of  the  experience  of  the  people  who  preceded  him  there. 
It  is  as  important  for  him  to  know  the  drawbacks  as  tho 
advantages ;  to  learn  of  the  failures,  and  the  reasons 
thereof,  as  of  the  successes.  In  the  advertising  matter 
sent  out  by  interested  individuals,  companies,  and  com- 
munities, intending  home-seekers  get  only  partial  and 
misleading  information  as  a  rule.  They  learn  only  of 
the  advantages  of  soil,  climate,  and  location.  The  ex- 
amples held  up  for  their  consideration  are  exceptional 
instances  of  prosperity  rather  than  average  results.  Of 
the  failures  and  disappointments  nothing  whatever  is 
reported.  Thus  it  happens  that  the  masses  of  our  peo- 
ple who  would  gladly  make  homes  in  the  undeveloped 
parts  of  the  country  suffer  about  equally  from  lack  of 
good  information  and  surfeit  of  misinformation. 

There  is  another  reason  which  accounts  for  the  back- 
wardness of  western  settlement,  depriving  even  the  class 
who  have  the  financial  ability  to  move  of  the  necessary 
courage  and  confidence.  This  is  the  fact  that  great 
numbers  of  people  who  went  West  in  the  past  incurred 
failure  or  disappointment.  This  is  an  influence  which 
may  be  observed  in  every  eastern  State.  There  is 
scarcely  a  community  which  has  not  sent  at  least  a  few 
settlers  west  who  reported  later  that  they  were  sorry 
they  left  home.  It  is  true  that  millions  of  eastern  peo- 
ple have  settled  between  the  Mississippi  river  and  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  prospered.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 

255 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

true  that  other  millions  have  remained  in  the  East  and 
failed  to  prosper.  Nevertheless,  as  failure  in  this  lino  is 
more  widely  advertised  than  success,  the  disappoint- 
ments encountered  by  families  and  individuals  drawn 
from  widely  scattered  eastern  communities  constitute  a 
most  serious  obstacle  in  colonization  work. 

What  are  the  causes  of  failure  on  the  part  of  eastern 
settlers  who  started  out  with  high  hopes,  and  frequently 
with  abundant  capital,  to  make  new  homes  in  the  West? 
There  are  a  variety  of  reasons,  but  they  may  be  broadly 
divided  under  two  heads.  There  have  been  numerous 
attempts  to  realize  impracticable  dreams  of  social  and 
economic  reforms.  These  were  usually  undertaken  by 
excellent  people  who  sincerely  desired  to  make  the  world 
better.  California  has  been  a  favorite  field  for  such 
efforts.  Madame  Helena  Modjeska  and  a  little  party 
of  her  talented  compatriots  tried  to  found  a  social  and 
artistic  paradise  in  the  vicinity  of  Los  Angeles  many 
years  ago.  They  failed  because  they  had  no  comprehen- 
sion of  the  prosaic  problems  of  land  and  water,  and  were 
unable  to  do  the  hard  work  which  success  required. 
There  was  a  dress-reform  colony  which  aimed  to  simplify 
feminine  attire,  and  provided  that  when  its  women  desired 
new  dresses  they  should  submit  the  matter  to  a  committee 
and  be  governed  by  its  action.  When  the  committee  re- 
ported adversely  to  any  woman's  hopes,  her  male  friends 
generally  took  her  part,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
colony  was  disbanded.  There  have  been  numerous  at- 
tempts to  realize  very  advanced  ideals  of  Socialism.  Al- 
most without  exception  these  were  undertaken  with  in- 
adequate capital,  and  failed  before  they  could  reach  the 
point  of  possible  success,  however  sound  the  theory  upon 


THE    PEOPLE    AND    THE    LANJ> 

which  they  worked.  There  is  reason  to  fear  that  dissen- 
sion and  lack  of  strong  leadership  might  have  defeated 
them  even  if  there  had  been  sufficient  working  capital. 

The  aggregate  of  these  unsuccessful  dream,  colonies  is 
small,  but  their  influence  upon  settlement  is  in  inverse 
ratio  to  their  numbers.  Such  great  examples  of  success- 
ful colonization  as  we  have  seen  in  Colorado,  Utah,  and 
southern  California  have  commanded  far  less  attention 
than  the  abortive  efforts  of  little  handfuls  of  people  who, 
at  different  times  and  places,  have  tried  to  found  institu- 
tions which  were  either  intrinsically  impracticable  or 
ahead  of  their  day.  Co-operative  associations  in  certain 
parts  of  the  West,  doing  an  annual  business  of  millions  of 
dollars,  and  co-operative  industries  and  stores  in  Great 
Britain  and  other  European  countries  which  have 
achieved  a  degree  of  success  even  more  unquestionable, 
are  less  known  by  popular  report  and  apparently  less 
influential  in  the  economic  life  of  our  times  than  many 
a  little  colony  of  enthusiasts  that  ended  in  failure. 
Brook  Farm  in  Massachusetts  is  a  striking  instance. 
Volumes  have  been  written  upon  it,  and  each  successive 
generation  of  New-Englanders  will  hear  of  it  and  smile, 
as  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  did  before  them. 

It  would  be  wholly  unfair  to  say  that  the  disappoint- 
ment of  settlers  is  limited  to  the  very  few  who  belonged 
to  this  class  of  idealistic  colonies.  Large  numbers  of 
people  have  gone  out  alone,  settled  in  western  cities  or 
towns,  encountered  failure  or  disappointment,  and  either 
returned  to  their  original  homes,  or  advised  their  friends 
to  remain  there. 

Those  who  settled  in  cities  may  be  disposed  of  in  a 
sentence.     Attracted   by  temporary  booms,  they  found 
n  257 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

that  western  cities  are  as  overcrowded  as  those  in  the 
East.  In  one  respect  the  condition  of  business  and  em- 
ployment is  frequently  more  discouraging  in  the  West. 
Many  people  in  poor  health  are  sent  out  by  their  phys- 
icians, and,  since  they  must  live  in  the  new  country  to 
save  their  lives,  are  willing  to  work  for  any  wages  they 
can  get.  This  introduces  an  element  of  competition  in 
the  ranks  of  employment  which  has  a  blighting  effect 
upon  wages.  Very  few  western  cities  are  in  need  of 
more  people  to  reinforce  either  their  commercial  or  pro- 
fessional life.  There  is  plenty  of  room  for  those  who  are 
willing  to  develop  and  use  the  vast  resources  of  natural 
wealth — for  those  who  are  willing  to  till  the  soil,  fell  the 
forest,  and  open  the  mine.  There  is  no  demand  for  more 
young  men  to  measure  tape  or  more  young  women  to  run 
type-writers.  What  is  wanted  is  millions  of  sturdy  men 
and  stout-hearted  women  to  conquer  the  waste  places  and 
to  work  for  themselves. 

A  large  proportion  of  those  who  went  west  in  recent 
years  engaged  in  the  fruit  industry.  This  was  painted 
as  a  sure  and  easy  road  to  wealth  and  an  ideal  occupa- 
tion in  the  midst  of  ideal  surroundings.  The  hard  work 
and  constant  vigilance  which  success  in  this  industry  de- 
mands were  seldom  mentioned  in  the  glowing  advertise- 
ments which  attracted  these  settlers.  Nothing  was  said 
of  the  economic  folly  of  the  farmer  who  buys  all  he  eats 
and  sells  all  he  produces.  As  a  natural  consequence, 
people  who  went  west,  particularly  to  California,  paid 
high  prices  for  their  land,  waited  years  for  trees  to  come 
into  bearing,  and  discovered  that  there  could  be  no  profits 
without  skill  and  hard  work.  Tlioy  found  that  there  arc 
such  evils  as  over-production,  hi^h  freight  charges,  and 

258 


TUE    PEOPLE    AND    THE    LAND 

the  extortions  of  the  commission  system.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  people  failed  in  their  efforts  to  make  homes  in 
the  semi-arid  regions  of  the  Dakotas,  Nebraska,  Kansas, 
and  Texas  because  of  having  neither  rain  nor  irrigation 
facilities  to  moisten  their  fields.  The  isolation  of  farm- 
life,  and  the  lack  of  the  enjoyments  and  refinements 
available  even  to  the  poor  in  the  older  States,  have  been 
fruitful  causes  of  heart-sickness. 

The  chief  reasons,  then,  why  the  surplus  people  do  not 
go  to  the  surplus  lands  are  that  they  have  not  the  capital 
to  do  so  ;  that  they  do  not  know  where  to  go ;  that  they 
do  not  know  how  to  organize  their  industry  in  order  to 
prosper ;  that  they  fear  the  lack  of  good  society  and  the 
refinement  which  this  should  furnish  to  them  and  their 
children.  The  plan  of  domestic  colonization  which  shall 
be  of  broad  and  enduring  effect,  and  so  give  to  the  nation 
the  incalculable  gains  which  may  be  won  from  the  devel- 
opment and  use  of  its  waste  resources,  must  solve  all 
these  problems.  Nothing  short  of  this  will  meet  the  de- 
mand and  open  the  gates  of  the  West  to  the  vast  mul- 
titude who  would  gladly  enter  at  this  wide  portal  if  they 
could  believe  that  economic  independence  lay  beyond. 


CHAPTER  III 
COLONIZATION  WITH   CO-OPEKATIVE   CAPITAL 

THE  problem  of  making  homes  in  the  West  for  the 
masses  is  the  problem  of  bringing  together  surplus  land, 
surplus  labor,  and  surplus  capital.  The  first  two  factors 
have  been  discussed  in  previous  chapters.  It  remains 
to  consider  the  question  of  surplus  capital  and  of  its 
utilization  in  connection  with  the  conquest  of  unused 
natural  resources. 

Of  the  fact  of  surplus  capital  there  is,  of  course,  no 
more  question  than  of  the  fact  of  surplus  land  or  the 
fact  of  surplus  labor.  Just  as  there  are  great  areas  of 
unemployed  land  and  great  numbers  of  half-employed 
people,  so  there  are  vast  amounts  of  idle  and  unpro- 
ductive, or  of  half-employed,  capital  all  over  the  United 
States  and  in  foreign  countries.  The  difficulty  is  that 
those  who  own  the  land  do  not  possess  the  necessary 
labor,  and  that  those  who  have  the  labor  do  not  possess 
the  necessary  capital.  Each  of  these  factors  is  impotent 
without  both  of  the  others.  To  bring  them  together 
upon  a  basis  of  mutual  security  and  profit  is  to  solve  so- 
cial and  economic  questions  of  world-wide  extent  and 
importance. 

The  evils  of  over-population,  and  the  consequent  fierce 
struggle  for  existence,  are  not  peculiar  to  the  United 

260 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

States,  one  of  the  newest  of  nations.  They  are  com- 
mon to  nearly  all  other  countries.  Nor  is  this  the  only 
continent  which  offers  an  inviting  field  for  expansion 
and  development.  The  same  problems  and  the  same  op- 
portunities, capable  of  solution  and  of  use  by  the  same 
methods,  exist  everywhere.  If  it  be  possible  to  effect 
colonization  by  means  of  co-operative  capital  in  western 
America,  then  it  is  equally  possible  to  do  the  same  in 
Africa,  Australia,  and  the  Orient.  If  this  method  will 
open  a  door  of  escape  for  the  swarming  populations  of 
Boston,  New  York,  and  Chicago,  it  will  accomplish  the 
same  result  for  the  over -crowded  people  of  London, 
Paris,  and  Rome. 

Looking  at  the  matter  in  the  light  of  its  world-wide 
possibilities,  we  see  at  once  that  if  capital  is  to  be  em- 
ployed in  the  work  of  colonization  apart  from  its  own- 
ers, as  is  done  in  railroads  and  other  industrial  enter- 
prises, it  must  be  employed  upon  the  soundest  business 
principles.  These  principles  must  bo  applicable  to  a 
great  variety  of  conditions — to  different  kinds  of  people, 
of  soil,  of  climate,  of  markets,  of  surrounding  resources. 
First  of  all,  there  must  be  security.  Second,  there  must 
be  earning  capacity  at  least  equal  to  the  demands  of  cur- 
rent interest  on  safe  investments.  Any  plan  that  falls 
short  of  this  will  not  meet  the  exigency. 

Our  settler  has  only  his  labor  to  start  with.  Ho  must 
buy  land  of  one  man  and  borrow  capital  of  another.  Then 
he  must  pay  for  both  with  the  proceeds  arising  from  tho 
wise  use  of  the  land  he  has  bought  and  the  money  he 
has  borrowed,  plus  the  capacity  to  labor,  which  was  his 
only  original  capital.  The  element  of  charity  cannot 
enter  into  the  matter  at  all.  Philanthropy  in  its  true 

2G1 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

sense — concern  for  the  welfare  of  mankind — may  furnish 
an  impulse  to  such  a  work,  as  it  has  done  for  many 
another  business  enterprise,  such  as  life  insurance, 
building  and  loan  associations,  and  workingmen's  hotels. 
But  these  enterprises  rest  on  sound  and  enduring  business 
principles,  or  they  could  not  long  exist  or  widely  extend. 
We  must  find  equally  sound  and  enduring  business  prin- 
ciples upon  which  to  rest  the  idea  of  colonization  by 
means  of  co-operative  capital,  or  it  can  contribute  noth- 
ing of  value  to  the  progress  of  civilization. 

In  the  seventeen  western  States  and  Territories  there 
are  to-day  eight  million  acres  of  fertile  land  lying  under 
completed  irrigation  systems.  There  are  millions  more 
lying  under  half-finished  works.  They  represent  an  un- 
productive investment,  counting  interest  charges,  of  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  million  dollars.  The  chief 
reasons  for  the  fact  that  they  are  not  utilized  by  those 
who  need  them  have  been  stated  in  the  foregoing  chap- 
ter. Additional  reasons  are  the  unsatisfactory  condi- 
tion of  water-rights  in  numerous  instances,  and  the  pop- 
ular prejudice  against  arid  lands.  These  lands  have 
every  element  of  potential  value.  They  have  the  pe- 
culiar fertility  arising  from  aridity,  as  described  upon 
scientific  authority  in  an  early  chapter  of  this  book. 
They  are  fortunate  alike  in  climate  and  in  the  surround- 
ing resources  of  mine,  forest,  and  grazing  lands.  They 
represent  the  highest  productive  capacity  upon  the  small- 
est area,  and  are  thus  capable  of  sustaining  the  densest 
agricultural  population.  All  these  conditions  inako 
these  lands  extremely  valuable,  but  only  in  case  the  cap- 
ital and  labor  be  supplied  to  awaken  their  sleeping  po- 
tentialities. 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

Here  is  a  field  which  stands  ready  and  waiting.  The 
costly  work  of  preparation  was  done  during  a  speculative 
era,  when  it  was  believed  that  it  was  only  necessary  to 
build  reservoirs  and  canals  in  order  to  induce  a  stampede 
of  settlers  to  the  newly  reclaimed  regions  comparable  to 
that  which  peopled  a  State  in  Oklahoma  almost  in  a 
night.  But  those  who  reckoned  thus  did  not  understand 
certain  fundamental  differences  between  the  humid  and 
arid  regions,  and  how  these  differences  affected  not 
merely  the  process  of  colonization,  but  the  habits,  cus- 
toms, and  institutions  of  the  people  engaged  in  the  work. 
As  the  irrigation  speculation  of  the  early  nineties  turned 
out,  it  seems  almost  as  if  a  special  Providence  had  pro- 
vided a  field  for  co-operative  colonization,  and  then  per- 
mitted it  to  lie  fallow  until  men  should  see  the  light. 

There  are  plenty  of  surplus  people  who  would  gladly 
occupy  these  surplus  lands.  The  missing  link  is  the 
necessary  capital.  Supposing  this  be  supplied  and  the 
willing  people  sent  forth  upon  their  task,  what  are  the 
elements  of  security  and  the  sources  of  profit  for  the 
capital  which  must  be  employed  ? 

First,  there  is  security  in  the  land  and  water  sup- 
ply. This  is  of  the  most  permanent  and  stable  charac- 
ter. It  cannot  burn  up,  nor  blow  away,  nor  be  stolen, 
nor  does  it  deteriorate  with  use.  It  grows  more  valua- 
ble with  the  passing  years,  with  development,  with  the 
increasing  pressure  of  population.  The  improvements 
made  upon  it  are  likewise  fixed  in  character.  Every 
dollar  of  money  and  every  hour  of  labor  expended  upon 
the  land  remain  there,  permanent  and  inalienable  addi- 
tions to  the  value  of  the  property. 

There  is  a  second  element  of  security  not  inferior  to 
263 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  land  itself.  It  is  the  element  of  human  labor.  This 
is  the  soul  of  the  security,  as  land  and  water  are  its  physi- 
cal body.  Labor  is  the  creative  force  which  alone  gives 
value  to  any  form  of  security.  Behind  government  and 
municipal  bonds  is  the  labor  of  bodies  politic.  Behind 
railroad  and  other  industrial  stocks  and  bonds  is  the  labor 
of  an  army  of  employes.  Behind  co-operative  coloniza- 
tion bonds  would  be  the  labor  of  earnest  men  and  women, 
selected  for  their  intelligence,  industry,  and  ambition — 
of  men  and  women  working  under  competent  leadership 
to  make  homes  and  achieve  independence  for  themselves 
and  their  children.  There  can  be  no  better  security  than 
good  irrigated  land  occupied  by  industrious  people  under 
these  conditions. 

The  foregoing  statements  apply  with  equal  force  to 
the  question  of  earning  capacity.  There  is  no  failure  of 
crops  upon  irrigated  lands  when  cultivated.  There  never 
will  or  can  bo  such  failure  until  water  forgets  to  run 
down  hill  and  the  earth  forgets  to  yield  her  increase. 
The  productive  capacity  of  irrigated  lands,  under  the 
conditions  of  soil  and  climate  obtaining  in  the  arid 
regions,  is  superior  to  that  of  any  other  lands.  Under 
the  industrial  plan  outlined  in  the  following  chapter  it 
is  impossible  for  the  colonists  to  fail  of  a  living.  Under 
that  plan  it  is  likewise  impossible  for  them  to  fail  of 
a  surplus  above  a  living,  sufficient  to  earn  interest  and 
make  regular  contributions  to  the  sinking  fund  upon  the 
basis  of  such  a  capitalization  as  is  ample  for  the  under- 
taking. 

We  have  here,  then,  in  the  irrigated  but  idle  valleys  of 
the  West,  all  the  elements  of  a  first-class  security,  includ- 
ing the  capacity  to  earn  profits  and  pay  off  the  principal. 

2G4 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

"We  have,  first,  a  great  investment  which  has  prepared 
the  land  for  occupancy;  then,  fertile  land  and  reliable 
water  supply ;  intelligent  and  interested  labor  to  do  the 
work;  the  improvements  made  by  tho  use  of  the  labor 
and  capital.  Tho  very  important  question  of  wise  and 
honest  administration  of  the  enterprise  is  dealt  with  in 
a  subsequent  chapter. 

Having  considered  tho  general  principles  of  invest- 
ment which  enter  into  tho  problem,  we  are  now  ready  to 
discuss  its  details.  The  lands  and  works  required  for  the 
undertaking  should  be  purchased  on  the  shrewdest  busi- 
ness terms.  They  can  generally  be  had  for  at  most  the 
amount  of  the  original  investment,  and  often  for  a  good 
deal  less.  In  many  cases  a  large  part  of  the  investment 
has  been  eliminated  by  foreclosure,  and  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  reimburse  the  bondholders,  or  those  who  bought 
at  forced  sale.  There  is  no  occasion,  therefore,  for  the 
settlers  to  pay  a  sum  which  would  represent  a  profit  upon 
the  lands  and  works.  If  they  pay  six  per  cent,  upon  the 
capital  borrowed  to  acquire  and  develop  the  property  on 
the  favorable  terms  now  possible,  they  can  readily  com- 
mand all  the  capital  needed  for  future  operations.  Tho 
price  of  lands  would  vary  in  different  parts  of  tho  West, 
ranging  from  five  to  twenty  dollars  per  acre.  This  would 
include  the  appurtenant  irrigation  systems  and  perpetual 
water-rights.  With  labor  and  capital  to  develop  them 
under  wise  plans  and  good  leadership,  these  lands  and 
improvements  would  soon  have  a  value,  on  the  basis  of 
earning  capacity,  of  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  per  acre, 
and  in  some  instances  much  more. 

Tho  cost  of  transporting  settlers  from  their  present  to 
their  new  homes  should  be  borne  by  themselves  or  friends. 

205 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

It  would  not  be  a  legitimate  use  of  the  investment  fund. 
AVI iat  is  paid  for  land,  labor,  and  resulting  improvements 
remains  as  a  permanent  part  of  the  security  and  facilities 
of  production.  But  every  dollar  paid  for  moving  people 
and  household  goods  is  lost  and  can  add  nothing  to  se- 
curity or  income.  Labor  supplies  should  be  drawn  from 
the  nearest  point  where  available,  or  if  brought  from  a 
distance  should  bear  their  own  transportation  charges. 

The  first  expenditure  of  the  investment  fund,  after 
paying  for  the  land,  would  necessarily  be  for  shelter  ;  the 
next  for  implements  and  live  stock,  seed,  and  fruit-trees. 
After  that  the  entire  fund  would  be  available  for  labor 
and  its  maintenance.  This  labor  would  be  used  to  clear 
and  plant  the  land  and  bring  it  to  the  highest  possible 
stage  of  production.  Settlers  in  the  AVest  build  com- 
fortable houses  for  two  or  three  hundred  dollars,  and  even 
less.  Many  a  prosperous  colonist  points  to  a  shanty  in 
the  shadow  of  a  comfortable  residence  which  is  full  of 
interest  to  him  as  a  monument  to  his  humble  start,  lie 
and  his  family  built  it  with  their  own  hands,  perhaps 
paying  no  more  than  fifty  dollars  for  the  materials.  It  is 
amazing  how  comfortable  a  family  can  be  in  the  poorest 
shelter  when  they  think  they  see  property  and  financial 
independence  a  few  years  ahead  of  them.  It  is  not  profit- 
able to  go  into  all  the  items  of  cost  in  detail,  since  con- 
ditions vary  with  different  localities,  but  it  may  be  said 
that  one  thousand  dollars  per  family  would  be  the  mini- 
mum and  two  thousand  dollars  per  family  the  maximum 
sum  to  bo  provided  where  settlers  drew  their  entire  capi- 
tal from  the  investment  fund.  Farms  should  not  be 
smaller  than  ten  acres,  nor  larger  than  forty,  and  twenty 
acres  would  be  a  reasonable  average. 

260 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

It  is  highly  necessary  to  set  apart  a  certain  proportion 
of  the  investment  fund — say  ten  per  cent. — to  be  used  by 
the  colony  for  common  purposes.  They  should  own  and 
improve  the  town-site  and  have  the  profits  arising  there- 
from. AVe  have  seen  the  benefits  of  this  plan  in  the  his- 
tory of  Horace  Greeley's  famous  Colorado  colony.  They 
should  own  various  small  industries,  the  possession  of 
which  represents  the  difference  between  large  profits  and 
small  ones  for  their  labor  and  crops;  the  difference  be- 
tween selling  finished  product  and  selling  raw  material ; 
the  difference  between  commercial  independence  and  de- 
pendence. They  should  own  or  control  range  facilities, 
that  they  may  engage  in  the  remunerative  cattle  and 
sheep  industries.  In  many  cases  they  will  find  it  profit- 
able to  cut  and  manufacture  their  own  lumber.  No  single 
thing  can  contribute  so  much  to  their  independence  and 
prosperity,  and,  consequently,  to  their  peace  and  happi- 
ness, as  a  fund  available  for  those  things  which  are  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  individual,  yet  highly  essential  to  the 
individual  as  a  part  of  the  community.  The  manage- 
ment of  this  common  fund  and  the  various  properties  to 
be  created  with  it  is  dwelt  upon  in  the  next  chapter. 

Returning  now  to  the  financial  proposition,  we  see  that 
the  settler  who  borrows  one  thousand  dollars  to  improve 
a  twent3r-acre  farm  incurs  an  obligation  of  fifty  dollars 
per  acre.  A  part  of  this  he  has  paid  for  land,  and  an- 
other part  contributed  to  the  colony  fund  for  the  general 
purposes.  The  balance  is  an  improvement  fund,  availa- 
ble to  bring  his  farm  to  a  productive  state.  If  he  is  to 
pay  back  his  borrowed  capital  in  ten  years,  and  pay  six 
per  cent,  interest  in  the  mean  time,  he  must  have  three 
dollars  per  acre  each  year  for  interest  and  five  dollars  per 

207 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

acre  for  the  sinking  fund.  In  other  words,  he  must 
earn  and  lay  aside  the  net  sum  of  eight  dollars  per  acre 
over  and  above  the  cost  of  his  living.  No  one  familiar 
with  the  productive  capacity  of  irrigated  land,  and  with 
the  markets  which  fortunately  surround  nearly  every  fer- 
tile valley  in  the  arid  region,  will  doubt  that  this  is  easily 
possible.  But  by  what  methods  can  this  result  be  best 
assured  ?  Is  the  average  settler  drawn  from  the  urban 
life  of  the  East  able  to  expend  his  borrowed  capital  and 
direct  his  untrained  energies  surely  to  this  end  ?  Will 
the  investor  be  willing  to  trust  him  to  do  so  ?  Both 
questions  may  be  emphatically  answered  in  the  negative. 
How,  then,  is  the  thing  to  be  done  ? 

The  labor  is  handled  as  a  unit.  While  each  man  is 
working  for  himself  he  does  not  work  by  himself.  He 
works  in  co-operation  with  his  fellows,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  export  superintendence,  at  least  until  all  the 
farms  have  been  brought  successfully  through  the  pre- 
liminary stage  to  a  paying  condition,  and  until  the  de- 
mands of  intensive  cultivation  make  it  more  profitable 
for  each  man  to  devote  his  time  largely  to  his  own 
place.  This  is  only  reducing  to  a  science  the  method  of 
"swapping  work"  which  already  prevails  in  new  coun- 
tries— that  is,  where  there  are  a  number  of  settlers,  they 
help  each  other  in  clearing  lands,  building  houses,  and, 
later,  in  planting  and  harvesting  crops.  They  find  it 
profitable  to  do  this,  especially  in  the  early  years  of  their 
settlement,  because  there  are  so  many  things  to  be  dono 
about  a  farm  which  are  beyond  the  strength  of  a  single 
individual.  By  helping  each  other  the  work  of  all  is 
dono  expeditiously,  without  cash  outlay  for  hired  hands. 
It  is  the  old  story  of  more  economical  production  and 

sns 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

less  waste  by  doing  things  on  a  large  scale  instead  of  a 
small  one. 

The  advantages  which  settlers  obtain  by  the  crude 
method  of  "swapping  work  "among  themselves  would 
be  vastly  greater  in  the  case  of  co-operative  colonists 
working  with  sufficient  capital  under  trained  leadership. 
In  clearing,  planting,  and  reaping  they  would  be  able  to 
rise  machinery  too  expensive  for  one  small  farm,  but  very 
cheap  indeed  when  the  expense  is  divided  among  many 
small  farms.  The  quality  of  their  work  and  the  esprit 
do  corps  would  be  much  higher.  It  would  represent  the 
difference  between  a  regiment  and  a  mob.  Eaw  recruits 
would  soon  become  as  effective  as  the  best-trained  farm- 
ers under  this  teaching  and  discipline.  But  the  chief 
advantage  would  be  the  financial  one.  This  would  result 
from  the  prevention  of  waste  of  money,  time,  and  ener- 
gies which  characterizes  individual  settlement,  especially 
where  the  conditions  of  industry  are  so  new  to  most  of 
our  race  and  nationality  as  they  are  in  the  land  of  irriga- 
tion. It  would  result  also  from  the  fact  that  those  who 
had  furnished  capital  for  the  work  would  be  able,  through 
th,eir  representatives,  to  keep  their  hands  on  the  purse- 
strings,  and  so  control  and  direct  the  expenditure  of 
their  money  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  ends — the 
making  of  productive  homes  which  will  enable  the  bor- 
rowers to  pay  interest  regularly  and  principal  at  maturity. 

If  the  labor  is  to  be  handled  as  a  unit  and  the  settlers 
to  work  under  guidance,  by  what  method  is  the  improve- 
ment fund  to  be  made  available  for  them,  and  how  are 
the  investors  to  be  assured  of  the  proper  collection  of 
their  share  of  the  proceeds  arising  from  the  joint  use  of 
the  land,  labor,  and  capital  ? 

269 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

The  improvement  fund  is  paid  out  regularly  each  week 
or  month  in  the  form  of  wages.  Out  of  these  wages  the 
settler  pays  a  regular  sum  each  month,  equivalent,  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  to  six  per  cent,  interest  on  the  amount 
he  has  borrowed.  After  the  first  year  he  would  be  re- 
quired to  make  an  additional  monthly  payment  into  the 
sinking  fund,  equal,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  to  ten  per 
cent,  of  his  borrowed  capital.  But  after  the  first  year 
the  settler  has  something  besides  his  wages  on  which  to 
depend  for  his  payments. 

All  the  profits  of  the  work  above  fixed  charges  arc 
credited  to  the  settlers  in  proportion  to  their  wages, 
which  are  supposed  to  fairly  measure  the  value  of  their 
work.  The  fixed  charges  are  cost  of  labor  and  materials 
and  six  per  cent,  interest  on  the  capital  employed.  The 
profits  above  these  charges  should  be  large  and  increase 
with  each  year,  especially  as  trees  come  in  bearing.  It 
is  for  the  settler's  interest  to  have  these  profits  begin  as 
soon  and  grow  as  large  as  possible,  since  they  are  all  ap- 
plied to  the  reduction  of  his  debt.  The  accumulations 
of  the  sinking  fund  are  applied  by  trustees  to  good  in- 
vestments, in  connection  with  the  colony,  such  as  cattle 
or  sheep,  the  erection  of  needed  industries,  or  the  pro- 
vision of  facilities  for  the  sale  and  distribution  of  prod- 
ucts. If  circumstances  permitted,  the  entire  borrowed 
capital  could  be  paid  off  before  the  time  of  its  maturity, 
or  the  money  retained  for  profitable  use  in  other  ways, 
as  seemed  best  to  those  charged  with  the  care  of  the  in- 
vestment. 

Wages  vary  with  different  occupations,  but  common 
labor  would  reoeive  thirty  to  forty  dollars  per  month, 
out  of  which  the  family  living  would  be  paid.  An  ad- 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

ditional  charge  would  bo  made  for  life  insurance,  to  pro- 
tect both  the  loan  and  the  settler's  family  in  case  of 
death.  It  is  not  expected  that  the  wages  will  be  such 
as  to  provide  for  anything  except  the  bare  necessities  of 
life.  The  co-operative  settler  must  be  economical  and 
thrifty  and  work  hard.  It  is  not  a  case  for  the  eight- 
hour  day.  Men  who  are  working  for  themselves  rather 
than  for  other  men  can  afford  to  work  long  hours,  as  has 
been  done  by  most  of  those  who  have  made  themselves 
independent.  An  incidental  advantage  of  handling  the 
labor  as  a  unit  under  good  management  is  that  it  can  bo 
employed  effectively  throughout  the  year  in  developing 
the  colony  and  its  surrounding  resources,  which  is  not 
generally  the  case  with  individual  settlers. 

There  are  two  other  striking  advantages  which  result 
from  preserving  the  solidarity  of  both  the  labor  and  the 
capital  under  this  plan.  All  the  supplies  consumed  by 
the  community,  from  potatoes  to  mowing-machines,  can 
be  purchased  at  wholesale  and  at  a  great  saving  of  cost. 
Then  the  products  of  the  land  can  be  sold  under  a  single 
management  and  in  large  quantities.  The  result  is  a 
great  saving  in  the  cost  of  living  and  a  better  net  result 
in  selling.  Both  of  these  things  enhance  the  settler's 
prosperity  and  enable  him  to  repay  his  borrowed  capital 
the  sooner.  It  is  not  expected  that  all  settlers  will  pay 
out  in  the  same  time.  Some  will  do  so  years  earlier  than 
others,  because  more  economical  and  ambitious.  In 
fixing  the  term  of  the  loan  at  ten  years,  the  maximum 
period  is  taken. 

In  estimating  the  settler's  ability  to  repay  borrowed 
capital,  one  thousand  dollars  is  taken  as  the  unit  of 
the  loan,  and  twenty  acres  as  the  unit  of  the  farm. 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

When  the  loan  is  twice  the  amount  the  farm  will  be 
double  the  size.  In  the  former  case  the  annual  in- 
terest charge  is  sixty  dollars,  and  the  contribution  to 
sinking  fund  one  hundred  dollars,  or  a  total  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  dollars  per  year.  To  meet  these  charges, 
as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  profits  and  savings 
from  wages  must  be  equal  to  eight  dollars  per  acre.  It 
is  the  problem  of  the  management  to  make  the  labor 
produce  the  amount  of  its  moderate  wage  and  something 
in  excess.  Careful  estimates  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
five  dollars  per  month,  or  sixty  dollars  per  year,  is  all 
that  need  be  deducted  from  the  wages  of  the  settler  who 
borrows  one  thousand  dollars  on  twenty  acres,  and  that 
ten  dollars  per  month  would  be  deducted  from  the  wages 
of  the  settler  who  borrowed  two  thousand  dollars  on 
forty  acres.  It  seems  to  be  perfectly  safe  to  count  upon 
a  net  annual  profit  of  five  dollars  per  acre  to  make  up 
the  balance  of  one  hundred  dollars  on  the  twenty-acre 
farm,  and  of  two  hundred  dollars  on  the  forty-acre  farm. 
Considering  the  immense  advantages  arising  from  the 
purchase  of  supplies  at  wholesale,  the  sale  of  products  in 
large  quantities,  and  from  working  under  able  and  expert 
management,  this  would  appear  to  be  a  reasonable  and 
conservative  calculation. 

This  chapter  is  intended  to  treat  only  of  the  utilization 
of  surplus  capital  in  making  homes  for  surplus  people 
upon  surplus  lands.  It  touches  upon  the  employment 
and  organization  of  labor  only  so  far  as  necessary  to 
show  how  the  capital  may  be  used,  conserved,  compen- 
sated, and  finally  repaid. 

The  use  of  co-operative  capital  in  making  homes  for 
those  who  live  and  work  in  cities  and  towns  is  well 

872 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

known.  There  are  nearly  five  thousand  bnilding  and 
loan  associations  in  the  United  States.  They  have  more 
than  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  members,  and 
a  paid-in  capital,  gathered  mostly  in  very  small  sums,  of 
over  six  hundred  million  dollars.  They  have  put  roofs 
over  the  heads  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  Amer- 
ican families. 

Both  for  the  lender  and  the  borrower  colonization 
with  co-operative  capital  is  safer  and  better  than  urban 
house-building  with  co-operative  capital.  A  twenty-acre 
irrigated  farm,  with  an  industrious  family  working  upon 
it  under  good  direction,  is  better  security  for  a  loan  than 
a  twenty-five  foot  lot  in  the  suburbs  of  New  York  with 
a  house  upon  it.  It  is  such  because  of  its  greater  and 
more  certain  productive  capacity,  and  because  the  man 
who  has  borrowed  the  money  to  make  a  farm  is  more 
certain  of  employment  than  he  who  has  borrowed  merely 
to  build  a  house. 

The  man  who  borrows  to  build  the  house  is  usually 
dependent  upon  others  for  his  living,  in  the  sense  that 
he  is  employed  to  work  for  wages.  His  income  may  be 
interrupted  at  any  moment  by  the  strike,  the  lockout, 
or  financial  panic.  His  employer  may  die  or  become 
insolvent.  A  new  labor-saving  machine  or  a  new  ship- 
load of  Italian  immigrants  may  send  him  into  the  streets. 
When  he  gets  old  the  house  does  not  snstain  him.  When 
he  dies  it  does  not  sustain  his  loved  ones. 

The  man  who  borrows  to  make  a  home  on  the  irri- 
gated lands  of  the  West  works  for  himself  and  cannot 
be  discharged.  He  is  on  the  road  to  complete  eco- 
nomic independence.  Even  in  hard  times  he  is  sure  of 
his  living.  Labor-saving  machinery  works  for  him  and 
s  273 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

not  against  him.  The  coming  of  new  swarms  of  foreign 
immigrants  into  the  cities  does  not  alarm  him,  for  ho 
feeds  arid  clothes  them.  When  he  has  passed  the  years 
of  greatest  activity  the  kindly  soil  goes  on  producing, 
and  constitutes  his  old-age  pension.  When  he  dies  the 
soil  still  continues  to  produce  and  to  support  his  fam- 
ily, for  it  is  his  life-insurance  policy.  Viewed  from  every 
stand-point,  co-operative  capital  can  be  employed  to  bet- 
ter advantage  in  colony -making  than  in  urban  house- 
building. Financially,  economically,  and  socially — it  may 
not  be  extravagant  even  to  say  politically — the  results 
will  be  better  and  more  far-reaching. 

The  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Company  of  New 
York,  under  the  successful  presidency  of  Dr.  Elgin  II. 
L.  Gould,  with  the  generous  financial  backing  of  some 
of  the  wealthiest  citizens  of  New  York,  as  well  as  of 
many  small  investors,  is  erecting  model  tenements  in 
the  great  city  and  making  model  country  homes  in  its 
suburbs.  While  the  motive  of  this  work  is  philan- 
thropic, the  method  is  distinctly  commercial.  It  pays 
five  per  cent,  dividends,  yet  serves  the  highest  social 
purposes.  Mr.  D.  0.  Mills  builds  workingmen's  hotels, 
and  his  praises  are  upon  the  lips  of  thousands  who  have 
enjoyed  their  comfortable  shelter,  yet  he  makes  them 
pay  four  per  cent,  as  regularly  as  government  bonds. 
Many  other  instances  of  the  safe  and  profitable  use  of 
capital  in  ways  which  benefit  mankind  might  be  quoted. 

Thero  lies  the  beautiful  West,  with  room  for  one  hun- 
dred million  people.  The  people  nre  in  existence,  and 
need  the  lands  as  badly  as  the  lands  need  them.  But 
their  hands  are  tied.  Only  capital  can  untie  them,  and 
at  the  same  time  unlock  the  stores  of  natural  wealth  now 

274 


CO-OPERATIVE    CAPITAL 

imprisoned  in  desert  soil  and  forest  and  mountain. 
Without  co-operative  capital  the  people  cannot  move, 
and  without  co-operative  industry  it  would  be  idle  for 
them  to  do  so.  It  is  not  only  new  settlers  for  new  lands 
that  are  wanted,  but  new  institutions  for  new  times. 


CHAPTER  IV 
COLONY   PLANS  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

IF  surplus  labor  and  capital  are  to  be  directed  to  the 
systematic  development  of  surplus  lands,  they  must  work 
upon  well-considered  industrial  and  social  plans  and 
create  institutions  adapted  to  the  times  and  the  sur- 
roundings. 

"VVe  have  seen  how  the  famous  colonies  of  Colorado, 
Utah,  and  southern  California  were  thoughtfully  planned 
by  their  founders,  how  well  they  succeeded,  and  how 
their  success  exerted  a  wide  and  beneficent  influence 
upon  the  regions  in  which  they  were  planted.  In  our 
brief  references  to  Holland  we  have  observed  the  effect 
of  natural  environment  upon  the  habits  and  institutions 
of  the  people,  not  only  in  their  industry,  but  also  in 
their  society,  and  perhaps  in  their  politics.  In  our  study 
of  irrigation  as  an  economic  force  we  have  seen  how  im- 
periously it  compels  the  small-farm  unit,  with  its  correl- 
ative off ect  of  near  neighbors  and  social  advantages ;  how 
it  commands  the  organization  and  association  of  labor  in 
large  ways,  yet  favors  individual  proprietorship  of  the 
many  small  units  of  land  which  make  up  the  aggregate 
of  a  successful  community.  These  are  our  land  marks  in 
planning  the  wise  use  of  land  and  labor  and  capital  in 
the  fertile  valleys  of  the  Far  West. 

270 


COLONY  PLANS  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

Before  we  can  satisfy  capital  we  must  show  that  there 
arc  security  and  earning  capacity.  In  like  manner  there 
are  certain  fundamental  requirements  essential  to  sat- 
isfy labor.  There  are  three  things  which  human  beings 
want  —  first,  the  certainty  of  a  living,  which  includes 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter  ;  second,  surplus  means  above 
a  living  for  the  improvement  of  the  home,  the  educa- 
tion of  the  children,  and  provision  against  old  age ; 
third,  satisfaction  for  the  social  instincts.  These  three 
things  are  as  necessary  to  the  contentment  of  labor  as 
security  and  interest  are  vital  to  the  satisfaction  of 
capital. 

The  corner-stone  of  the  colony's  industrial  system  is 
the  small,  diversified  farm,  producing  the  variety  of 
things  which  the  family  and  community  consume. 

Wo  have  seen  how  the  Mormon  farmers  prospered  for 
fifty  years  by  following  this  plan.  They  lived  well  in 
good  times  and  bad,  kept  out  of  debt,  and  steadily  ac- 
cumulated a  surplus  to  invest  in  banks,  factories,  stores, 
and  temples.  In  certain  years  they  would  have  realized 
larger  cash  returns  if  their  lands  had  been  exclusively 
devoted  to  corn,  wheat,  or  hops.  Southerners  speculate 
in  cotton ;  middle-westerners  in  grain ;  Californians  in 
fruit.  They  enjoy  brief  periods  of  flood -tide,  but  at 
least  half  the  time  the  tide  is  running  out,  and  at  reg- 
ular intervals  they  find  themselves  stranded  on  the  rocks 
and  shoals  left  by  its  ebb.  In  the  long  run  the  Mor- 
mon workers  have  distanced  them  by  steadfast  adherence 
to  the  policy  of  collecting  their  living  first  from  the  soil, 
and  having  a  surplus  afterwards  to  dispose  of  in  the 
markets.  It  is  beyond  question,  then,  that  self-suffi- 
ciency is  the  first  essential  of  a  true  industrial  system  in 

277 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  arid  region.  Nothing  should  be  purchased  for  cash 
which  can  be  economically  bought  with  labor. 

Every  valley  of  the  West  is  surrounded  by  large  and 
growing  home  markets,  in  the  way  of  lumber  and  min- 
ing camps  and  railroad  towns.  Not  a  single  State  be- 
yond the  Rockies  raises  enough  agricultural  products  to 
supply  its  own  wants.  The  trade  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  is 
expanding  by  strides  and  bounds.  Under  these  fortu- 
nate circumstances  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  plan  profitable 
lines  of  industry  for  new  colonies. 

There  are  three  lines  of  production  which  should  be 
systematically  followed,  having  first  been  carefully  adapt- 
ed to  local  conditions  of  soil,  climate,  and  surrounding 
markets.  These  lines  are  as  follows :  First,  the  things 
consumed  by  the  farmers  themselves ;  second,  the  things 
now  imported,  but  capable  of  home  production ;  third, 
the  things  which  distant  communities  consume  but  can- 
not produce,  which  will  therefore  bear  the  burden  of 
transportation  and  are  susceptible  of  profitable  export. 
The  first  list  consists  of  what  the  community  eats,  wears, 
and  uses  for  shelter,  or  in  its  arts  and  industries.  The 
second  list  includes  almost  everything  grown  from  the 
soil  or  manufactured  by  skilled  labor  and  machinery. 
It  also  includes  poultry  and  dairy  products  and  cured 
meats.  The  third  list  varies  with  different  localities. 
The  semi-tropical  parts  of  California  and  Arizona  find 
their  surplus  for  export  in  oranges,  lemons,  olives,  and 
fresh  and  dried  fruits  of  all  deciduous  kinds.  The 
more  temperate  regions  in  the  West  export  the  hardier 
fruits,  such  as  apples,  pears,  peaches,  and  prunes.  Fer- 
tile valleys,  surrounded  by  Uncle  Sam's  great  free  past- 
ures, produce  a  surplus  of  cattle  and  sheep,  hides  and  wool. 

278 


COLONY    PLANS    AND    INSTITUTIONS 

Great  sources  of  fntnre  profit  may  be  found  in  a  va- 
riety of  simple  industries,  which  demand  only  cheap 
machinery  and  a  small  amount  of  skilled  labor.  These 
are  such  industries  as  every  small  colony  may  have  if 
possessed  of  a  common  fund  for  industrial  purposes. 
They  include  creameries,  canneries,  pork  -  packeries, 
starch  factories,  and  the  like.  Lumber  and  plauing- 
mills,  and  various  other  small  industries  closely  related 
to  the  life  of  an  agricultural  community,  are  also  profit- 
able and  wholly  feasible  under  these  plans.  Time  and 
prosperity,  with  their  gradual  accretion  of  men  of  talent 
and  experience,  would  open  the  way  for  the  larger  and 
more  complicated  industries,  as  they  did  among  the 
Mormons.  Wool  and  hides  should  not  forever  be  shipped 
to  Boston,  and  cloth  and  shoes  forever  imported  from 
that  place,  so  remote  from  all  the  raw  materials  it  uses. 
If  no  capital  were  available  except  the  savings  of  trans- 
continental freight,  it  would  build  many  shoe  factories 
and  woollen  mills  in  the  regions  where  wool  and  hides 
are  cheaply  produced,  and  where  millions  must  always  be 
clothed  and  shod. 

Having  shown  how  labor  may  be  employed  so  that  it 
can  never  fail  of  its  living,  nor  of  a  surplus  above  its 
living  sufficient  for  the  reasonable  demands  of  human 
beings,  we  come  now  to  the  question  of  the  organization 
and  management  of  labor. 

The  system  of  labor  should  rest  upon  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  individual.  All  that  he  can  well  and  effec- 
tively do  for  himself  he  should  be  permitted  to  do.  Such 
advantages  as  he  may  win  by  individual  thrift,  industry, 
and  skill  he  is  entitled  to  obtain  and  enjoy  and  to  trans- 
mit to  his  children.  He  should  not  suffer  from  the  in- 

279 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

dolence  or  incompetence  of  other  men,  or  ask  others  to 
pay  the  penalty  of  his  own  shortcomings.  The  individ- 
ual home,  family,  and  farm  constitute  the  unit  of  indus- 
try and  society  in  the  colony.  But  there  is  a  sphere  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  individual. 

It  is  impossible  for  each  small  capitalist  and  proprietor 
to  maintain  his  own  store,  so  that  he  may  purchase  sup- 
plies to  the  best  advantage  ;  to  operate  his  own  selling 
agency,  so  that  he  may  dispose  of  surplus  products  'in 
the  best  markets  and  on  the  best  terms  ;  to  erect  and 
conduct  his  own  industrial  plants,  so  that  he  may  con- 
dense and  manufacture  raw  products  into  the  most  mar- 
ketable form  ;  to  purchase  and  manage  a  large  stock- 
ranch,  so  that  he  may  pasture  and  fatten  a  small  herd  of 
cattle  or  flock  of  sheep.  All  these  things  require  capital, 
special  knowledge,  and  an  amount  and  kind  of  labor  which 
the  individual  and  his  family  do  not  usually  possess. 

We  have  passed  from  the  sphere  of  the  single  man  or 
family  to  that  of  associated  man.  It  demands  the  use 
of  the  aggregate  capital  of  the  community  and  the  wise 
organization  of  labor.  We  must  now  have  either  com- 
petition or  co-operation — competition,  in  which  the  few 
of  large  capital  shall  employ  and  exploit  the  many ;  or  co- 
operation, in  which  the  many  shall  organize  their  capital 
and  their  labor  for  mutual  advantage  and  protection. 

We  may  now  apply  the  larger  lessons  learned  from  the 
Mormon  system  of  stock  companies,  from  the  fruit  ex- 
changes of  California,  and  from  the  co-operative  societies 
of  Europe.  The  modern  corporation,  and  even  the  mod- 
ern trust,  point  the  way  to  prosperity  for  the  army  of 
producers  who  will  occupy  the  now  vacant  West  in  the 
coming  century.  These  are  simply  :i  moans  of  combin- 


COLONY  PLANS  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

ing  the  capital  of  many  owners  so  that  they  may  accom- 
plish collectively  what  could  not  be  done  as  well,  or  at 
all,  individually.  The  advantages  of  this  method  are 
now  so  generally  recognized  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
dwell  upon  them.  It  is  important  to  remark,  however, 
that  the  expert  ability  which  a  corporation  with  large 
capital  can  command,  and  the  saving  of  waste  which  it 
can  effect  by  eliminating  competition  and  doing  things 
upon  a  large  scale,  is  as  vital  to  a  colony  as  to  a  railroad, 
a  gas  company,  or  a  group  of  sugar  refineries.  The  prin- 
ciple upon  which  aggregations  of  large  capital  are  made 
applies  as  well  to  aggregations  of  small  capital. 

The  colony  capital  should  be  handled  by  a  local  com- 
pany owning  the  town-site,  store,  industries,  and  such 
other  properties  as  experience  proves  to  be  useful  and 
profitable  to  the  community.  In  this  company  all  of  the 
colonists  would  be  equal  stockholders  at  the  beginning, 
.  and  every  safeguard  should  bo  erected  to  make  transfers 
of  stock  as  difficult  as  possible,  since  it  is  desired  to  pre- 
serve equality  of  ownership  in  everything  which  is  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  strictly  individual  control.  So  long 
as  the  settlers  are  under  obligations  to  the  founding  cap- 
ital— which  will  be  until  they  have  paid  off  their  loans — 
the  trustees  of  this  capital  will  control  the  local  company 
and  its  operations,  as  also  the  labor  and  land.  The  man- 
ner and  advantages  of  this  control  are  discussed  in  the 
next  chapter. 

We  have,  then,  a  community  composed  of  a  multitude 
of  small  landed  proprietors  working  for  themselves,  under 
the  direction  of  superior  ability  and  experience,  and  equip- 
ped with  sufficient  working  capital  for  both  their  private 
and  public  enterprises.  It  is  an  organized  community, 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

operated  upon  industrial  plans  thoroughly  vindicated  by 
the  experience  of  the  arid  region  during  the  past  half- 
century.  The  financial  plan  does  not  differ  materially 
from  that  of  building  and  loan  associations,  nor  the  plan 
of  conducting  stores  and  industries  from  that  of  the  suc- 
cessful co-operative  institutions  of  Great  Britain.  There 
is  nothing  novel  or  experimental  in  the  plan  as  a  whole, 
except  the  application  of  old  and  proved  principles  to 
new  conditions. 

The  project  of  co-operative  colonization  sometimes 
incurs  the  criticism  of  Socialists,  on  the  ground  that  it 
does  not  provide  a  sure  method  of  preserving  equality 
in  men's  possessions.  The  fear  is  expressed  that  the  abler, 
thriftier,  and  more  grasping  among  the  settlers  will  grad- 
ually acquire  large  means  and  make  their  fellows  pay 
tribute  to  them.  Such  a  result  would  be  theoretically 
possible,  but  is  hardly  a  practical  danger.  Though  the 
twenty -acre  irrigated  farm  has  never  yet  produced  a 
pauper,  neither  has  it  grown  a  millionaire,  nor  any- 
thing approaching  a  capitalist  of  ominous  proportions. 
The  tendency  in  colonies  where  irrigation  is  used,  as  we 
saw  in  an  early  chapter  of  this  book,  is  towards  the  di- 
vision of  lands  rather  than  in  the  direction  of  acquiring 
more.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  Socialism  would  give  to 
an  agricultural  population  any  important  advantages 
over  this  plan  of  co-operation,  which  preserves  individ- 
ual independence  while  providing  for  the  solidarity  of 
the  community. 

We  come  now  to  the  social  side  of  colony  institutions. 
We  have  seen  how  the  isolation  of  country  life  has 
driven  multitudes  to  the  already  crowded  cities.  In  the 
history  of  the  most  successful  settlements  ever  made  on 


COLONY    PLANS    AND    INSTITUTIONS 

irrigated  land  we  have  observed  a  simple  method  of 
giving  to  the  owners  of  small  farms  most  of  the  advan- 
tages of  town  life.  This  is  accomplished  by  assembling 
their  homes  in  village  centres  with  outlying  farms.  This 
is  an  old  custom  in  Europe,  is  the  most  universal  plan 
in  Utah,  and  has  been  adopted  in  many  other  western 
localities.  It  is  not  free  from  drawbacks,  and  should 
not  be  made  obligatory  upon  the  settlers,  but  experience 
has  proven  that  in  much  the  greater  portion  of  the  year 
the  advantages  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  living  in  the 
town. 

Most  men  are  willing  to  consult  the  convenience  and 
happiness  of  their  families  as  much  as  their  own.  When 
they  do  this  they  realize  what  it  is  worth  to  have  neighbors 
close  at  hand,  and  to  live  near  to  the  school,  church, 
store,  post-office,  and  all  else  so  essential  to  civilized 
life.  The  farmers  who  live  in  the  town  have  the  bene- 
fit of  clubs,  libraries,  and  various  forms  of  instruction 
and  entertainment.  They  and  their  families  enjoy  a 
full  and  rounded  life  compared  with  the  lean  existence 
of  those  whose  society  is  mostly  limited  to  quadrupeds. 
The  farmer's  village  home  must  be  ample.  Not  less 
than  an  acre  is  really  satisfactory,  but  this  is  quite  suffi- 
cient, considering  that  the  farm  is  distant  but  a  few 
minutes7  drive,  and  that  he  participates  in  facilities  else- 
where for  the  care  of  live-stock,  if  he  has  any  consider- 
able number.  Furthermore,  the  farmer  is  interested  in 
the  growth  of  the  town-site,  and  the  more  it  gains  in 
population  and  appearance  the  more  he  will  realize  from 
the  sale  of  its  business  and  residence  lots. 

A  colony  needs  no  political  institutions  other  than 
those  ordained  by  the  State  in  which  it  is  located.  But 

283 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

the  stockholders'  meetings  should  be  frequent  and  largely 
attended,  resembling  a  town-meeting  in  New  England. 
The  colonists  should  advise  about  all  their  affairs,  and 
exercise  control  in  everything  which  does  not  affect 
the  security  of  the  founding  capital.  After  the  prelim- 
inary period  of  development  is  passed  and  the  loans 
paid  off,  they  will,  of  course,  have  absolute  control  of 
everything.  But  before  this  stage  is  reached  they  will 
have  served  a  good  apprenticeship  under  competent  and 
sympathetic  leaders,  and  have  gradually  grown  up  to 
the  full  size  of  their  opportunities  and  responsibilities. 
Their  town-meetings  will  furnish  a  parliamentary  train- 
ing of  no  mean  value,  especially  to  the  young,  as  has 
been  the  case  in  New  England.  All  should  serve  upon 
committees,  and  so  gain  personal  familiarity  with  every 
phase  of  the  colony  business.  These  committees  should 
be  very  numerous,  and  members  should  be  rotated,  so  as 
to  give  them  experience  upon  each. 

Who  shall  estimate  the  future  influence  in  the  life  of 
America  and  the  world  of  a  generation  reared  under  such 
conditions  and  in  the  midst  of  such  surroundings  ? 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  CO-OPEEATIVE  SETTLEMENT 

GIVEN  favorable  location,  industrious  settlers,  and 
abundant  capital,  there  is  yet  another  element  absolute- 
ly essential  to  the  success  of  co-operative  colonization. 
This  is  able  and  honest  management.  Good  leadership 
is  as  necessary  as  sound  principles,  and  executive  capacity 
at  the  head  as  vital  as  earnest  and  faithful  labor  in  the 
ranks. 

This  is  the  teaching  of  all  past  experience,  not  only  in 
colonization  effort,  but  in  all  co-operative  undertakings, 
especially  where  capital  has  been  supplied  by  one  class 
for  the  use  of  another.  The  leadership  required  is  of  a 
rarer  quality  than  that  usually  found  at  the  head  of 
financial  and  industrial  enterprises.  It  calls  not  mere- 
ly for  brains,  experience,  and  special  aptitude,  but  for 
devotion,  and  almost  for  consecration,  as  well.  There 
must  be  heart  as  well  as  head  in  the  management  of  such 
affairs.  A  man  with  only  large  human  sympathies 
would  not  succeed,  but  neither  would  a  man  with  only 
business  acumen.  Both  qualities  are  required  for  the 
successful  management  of  men  and  money  in  a  work 
which  aims  at  the  production  of  homes  and  institutions 
along  with  dividends. 

When  such  leadership  has  been  secured  it  should  bo 
285 


'     THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

given  full  control.  It  should  have  the  power  and  be  held 
to  the  responsibility.  This  responsibility  should  not  be 
divided  among  subordinates,  still  less  shared  with  the 
rank  and  file.  The  leader  has  placed  in  his  hands,  say, 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  destinies  of  one 
hundred  families.  The  care  of  the  money  is  an  impor- 
tant trust,  but  the  care  of  the  families  is  a  more  sacred 
responsibility.  The  man  who  is  willing  and  able  to 
assume  the  burden  of  such  a  task  should  have  the  power 
necessary  to  its  accomplishment,  and  the  praise  or  blame 
which  will  follow  the  result.  No  man  fit  for  the  work 
would  undertake  it  upon  any  other  conditions.  But  the 
chief  reason  for  vesting  control  in  superior  and  responsi- 
ble leadership  is  the  welfare  of  the  people  themselves. 

Almost  without  exception  successful  colonies  have 
been  ruled  with  the  strong  hand.  Sometimes  the  power 
proceeded  from  religious  superstition  or  fanaticism, 
sometimes  from  financial  or  legal  obligation,  and  some- 
times from  sheer  force  of  genius  on  the  leader's  part; 
but,  without  exception,  the  colonies  which  have  succeeded 
have  worked  under  one  guiding  brain  and  hand,  while 
those  that  have  failed  did  so  through  the  dissensions  and 
incompetency  of  the  general  membership.  This  has  not 
been  peculiar  to  our  race  and  country,  but  to  all  races 
and  countries.  It  was  true  of  Plymouth,  New  Amster- 
dam, and  Jamestown.  It  was  pre-eminently  true  of  the 
Utah  settlements,  and  only  a  little  less  so  of  those  of 
Colorado  and  California.  It  is  worth  while  to  glance 
briefly  at  recent  foreign  efforts  to  observe  the  working  of 
the  same  principle. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  eighty 
years  ago,  the  streets  and  roads  of  Ilolland  were  filled 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

with  idle  and  homeless  veterans.  A  certain  Dutch  general 
suggested  the  employment  of  this  labor  in  reclaiming 
agricultural  lands  and  creating  farms  and  homes,  believ- 
ing that  it  would  be  better  to  help  the  workless  to  inde- 
pendence than  to  extend  charity.  From  this  suggestion 
came  the  Beggar  Colonies,  and  subsequently  the  Free 
Colonies,  which  have  ever  since  absorbed  the  surplus 
labor  of  Holland.  They  have  graduated  thousands  from 
beggary  to  tenantry,  from  tenantry  to  proprietorship. 

The  enterprise  is  purely  governmental,  and  tinder  the 
rigid  control  of  able  and  responsible  men.  The  man  who 
asks  for  alms  is  taken  to  the  Beggar  Colonies  and  put  at 
work.  If  he  will  not  work  he  is  flogged  until  he  does,  or 
until  he  escapes  across  the  boundary  of  the  industrious 
little  nation  which  has  no  patience  with  the  wilfully  idle. 
In  this  beneficent  colony  the  people  are  systematically 
taught  the  art  of  agriculture.  After  five  years,  if  they 
have  proven  earnest  and  intelligent,  they  are  transferred 
to  the  Free  Colonies,  where  they  are  supplied  with  a  very 
small  farm  and  the  necessary  implements  and  live-stock, 
and  with  a  house  and  lot  in  the  village.  They  are  given 
ample  time  in  which  to  pay  for  the  property,  and  charged 
very  low  interest  on  the  use  of  the  capital.  The  plan 
has  been  a  financial,  economic,  and  social  success.  The 
result  is  unquestionably  due  to  the  fact  that  men  of 
superior  intelligence  and  experience  made  the  plan  and 
administered  it  to  the  last  detail  np  to  the  moment  when 
the  settler  became  a  full-fledged  proprietor. 

The  experience  of  the  German  government  in  dividing 
and  settling  with  small  farmers  great  landed  estates  in 
Prussian  Poland  furnishes  an  equally  striking  illustra- 
tion. This  work  was  undertaken  for  the  triple  purpose 

287 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

of  relieving  the  congestion  of  cities,  staying  the  decline 
of  rural  life,  and  preventing  the  further  emigration  of 
useful  citizens  to  foreign  parts.  It  is  practically  a  gov- 
ernment enterprise,  conducted  through  a  system  of  land- 
banks. 

When  the  owner  of  a  large  estate  desires  to  sell,  the 
government  sends  a  commission  to  examine  and  report 
upon  its  fitness  for  colonization.  If  the  report  is  favor- 
able the  land-bank  buys  the  estate  with  an  issue  of  bonds, 
which  the  government  has  guaranteed.  A  part  of  the 
fund  is  paid  to  the  owner  and  another  part  reserved  to 
assist  settlers.  All  the  work  of  subdivision,  drainage, 
and  other  preparation  for  settlement  is  done  by  the  gov- 
ernment, even  to  the  erection  of  houses  and  other  build- 
ings. Successful  applicants  are  supplied  with  seed,  live- 
stock, and  provisions  until  their  farms  become  self-sus- 
taining. They  are  asked  only  to  repay  the  actual  cost  of 
their  homes  and  farms  and  low  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment, the  payments  extending  over  many  years.  In 
the  mean  time  the  bonds  are  secured  by  lands  and  im- 
provements. The  control  of  the  entire  enterprise,  from 
start  to  finish,  is  held  in  firm  and  experienced  hands,  and 
it  is  needless  to  say  that  these  colonies  are  successful. 

Australia  furnishes  an  instance  of  a  different  kind. 
Young  as  it  is,  its  chief  cities  already  feel  the  pressure  of 
over-population.  Such  was  the  case  with  Adelaide,  tho 
capital  of  South  Australia,  in  1894. 

In  that  year  the  Parliament  of  South  Australia  passed 
the  Village  Settlement  Bill,  setting  apart  for  coloniza- 
tion certain  arid  public  lands  on  the  Murray  river.  Tho 
measure  provided  for  an  advance  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  for  each  member  of  the  colony,  but  vested 

288 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

the  management  largely  in  the  settlers  themselves.  They 
were  to  be  accompanied  by  a  government  official,  but  his 
power  was  that  of  moral  influence  rather  than  of  legal 
authority.  Under  this  plan  several  settlements  were 
started,  and  for  a  time  seemed  to  promise  excellent  re- 
sults. But  the  most  recent  information  the  writer  has 
been  able  to  obtain  is  to  the  effect  that  the  colonies 
went  to  pieces  upon  the  rock  of  internal  dissension,  as 
has  so  often  been  the  case  in  the  absence  of  strong,  re- 
sponsible leadership. 

The  experience  of  the  Chaffey  Brothers,  of  California, 
who  went  to  Australia  to  found  colonies  at  the  request 
of  the  government,  was  quite  similar.  As  long  as  the 
people  worked  upon  plans  the  projectors  had  learned 
from  their  valuable  experience  in  California,  and  accept- 
ed direction,  they  prospered.  When  the  people  took 
full  control  for  themselves,  dissension  and  demoraliza- 
tion quickly  ensued,  to  be  followed  by  disappointment, 
and  at  least  partial  defeat. 

Wherever  the  conditions  of  settlement  were  such  as 
to  call  for  organized  industry  and  society,  ail  experience 
teaches  the  absolute  need  of  superior  brains  and  charac- 
ter at  the  head  of  affairs.  This  is  not  strikingly  true  of 
the  settlement  of  the  vast  country  between  the  Alleghany 
and  the  Rocky  Mountains  during  the  past  one  hundred 
years.  In  that  case  both  the  locality  and  the  times 
favored  individual  effort.  But  the  waste-places  which 
remain  to  be  conquered,  not  only  in  the  United  States, 
but  in  nearly  all  other  parts  of  the  world,  present  con- 
ditions which  demand  the  association  and  organization 
of  both  labor  and  capital.  Even  if  physical  conditions 
did  not  make  this  demand,  existing  economic  facts  would 
T  289 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

be  equally  imperative.  The  small  capitalists  and  pro- 
ducers must  choose  between  organizing  themselves  and 
being  crushed  by  the  organizations  of  other  men. 

Recurring  to  the  matter  of  co-operative  colonization, 
we  see  that  colonies  cannot  be  made  without  capital ; 
that  capital  cannot  be  had  without  security  and  divi- 
dends ;  that  security  and  dividends  cannot  be  assured 
without  able  and  experienced  management ;  that  able 
and  experienced  management  cannot  be  obtained  with- 
out absolute  authority  in  all  essential  matters,  at  least 
while  the  farms,  industries,  and  institutions  are  in  the 
formative  stage  and  working  upon  borrowed  means. 
Thus  the  conclusion  is  forced  upon  us,  alike  by  world- 
wide experience  in  colonization  effort,  by  economic  con- 
ditions of  the  time,  and  by  the  consideration  of  the  de- 
mands which  capital  will  justly  make  before  lending 
itself  to  such  enterprises,  that  the  road  to  independence 
for  surplus  people  on  surplus  lands  lies  first  through  the 
field  of  discipline,  obedience,  and  submission  to  the  au- 
thority of  some  form  of  administration. 

What  should  this  form  of  administration  be  ?  In  Hol- 
land and  Germany  we  have  seen  the  power  exercised  by 
the  government,  and  in  Utah  by  the  church.  In  the 
colonial  days  of  the  Atlantic  coast  it  was  exercised  by 
civil  government  closely  dominated  by  the  church  and, 
even  more  extensively,  by  chartered  companies  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  colonization  and  development.  Where 
colonies  have  succeeded  without  guidance  from  govern- 
ment, church,  or  chartered  companies,  the  result  has 
been  due  to  the  ascendency  of  extraordinary  men,  and, 
more  rarely,  to  the  character,  spirit,  and  temperament 
of  the  people  them .-••«•!  v« •.>.  These  latter  instances  furnish 

290 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

no  light  for  our  present  problem,  since  capital  will  not 
invest  upon  the  mero  chance  of  finding  extraordinary 
men  or  colonists  of  rare  character  and  spirit. 

The  current  history  of  Ireland  furnishes  us  with  a  les- 
son of  great  importance.  In  that  country  economic  im- 
provement has  recently  superseded  political  agitation  in 
the  popular  mind.  The  result  is  an  industrial  and  social 
uplift  which  has  not  yet  attracted  the  world-wide  atten- 
tion it  deserves.  The  movement  is  the  result  of  the 
earnest  labors  of  the  Right  Hon.  Horace  Plunkett,  Mr. 
Thomas  P.  Gill,  Mr.  R.  A.  Anderson,  and  their  colleagues 
in  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organization  Society.  Their 
methods  are  not  exactly  parallel  to  those  which  could  bo 
used  in  the  settlement  of  a  new  country,  but  the  only 
difference  is  that  which  obtains  between  building  a  new 
house  and  rebuilding  an  old  one. 

Before  the  present  movement  was  started  Ireland  was 
about  as  hopeless  a  place  for  the  small  farmer  as  could 
be  discovered  upon  the  map  of  the  world.  Those  who 
produced  the  wealth  from  the  soil  bought  their  provisions 
and  sold  their  crops  to  the  poorest  possible  advantage, 
and  borrowed  money  at  crushing  rates  of  interest.  Their 
natural  markets  were  occupied  by  Belgian,  Dutch,  and 
French  farmers,  who  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  learn 
at  an  earlier  day  the  value  of  organization  on  co-oper- 
ative lines.  In  the  face  of  much  opposition  on  the  part 
of  his  countrymen,  especially  of  the  professional  poli- 
ticians, Mr.  Plunkett  set  out  upon  the  career  of  indus- 
trial reformer  and  up-builder.  Knowing  Ireland  by  heart, 
and  thoroughly  informed  of  the  methods  and  results  of 
co-operation  in  other  countries,  he  set  out  upon  a  cru- 
sade for  the  industrial  regeneration  of  his  countrymen. 

291 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

Ho  urged  the  virtues  of  the  higher  agriculture,  the  bene- 
fits of  organization  for  the  purchase  of  supplies  and  sale 
of  products,  and  the  incidental  social  advantages  to  be 
gained  through  commercial  co-operation.  He  preached 
to  the  lord  in  his  castle  as  well  as  to  the  peasant  in  his 
cottage.  He  urged  upon  the  rich  the  duty  they  owed  to 
their  country  and  their  fellow-men,  calling  upon  them  to 
give  of  their  means,  their  education,  and  their  experience, 
in  organizing  the  people  to  use  labor,  capital,  and  land  to 
better  advantage.  The  movement  strictly  avoids  politics, 
but  has  brought  representatives  of  all  other  elements  of 
Irish  life  into  the  great  society  of  which  Mr.  Plunkett  is 
president  and  Mr.  Anderson  secretary. 

The  society  has  dotted  the  map  of  Ireland  with  co- 
operative institutions  of  every  kind.  Its  own  relation 
to  these  institutions  is  not  that  of  stockholder  or  man- 
ager, but  is  purely  advisory  and  paternal.  The  society 
sends  out  lecturers  to  talk  to  the  people  and  show  them 
the  way  to  prosperity.  It  publishes  books,  pamphlets, 
and  an  entertaining  weekly  newspaper.  It  supplies  ex- 
perts to  conduct  experimental  farms,  establish  and  equip 
various  small  industries,  organize  commercial  associa- 
tions, and  supervise  the  bookkeeping  of  the  various  en- 
terprises. In  a  word,  it  puts  at  the  disposal  of  the  poor 
farmers  of  Ireland  the  brains  and  experience  of  superior 
men.  Working  with  the  benefit  of  these  brains  and  ex- 
perience, a  population  which  once  seemed  tho  most  dis- 
couraged and  hopeless  in  Europe  is  rising  steadily  and 
grandly  in  the  industrial  and  social  scale. 

It  is  borrowing  from  village  banks,  at  four  per  cent, 
annual  interest,  money  which  it  formerly  had  of  usurers 
at  two  to  live  per  cent,  a  month.  It  has  smashed  the  ring 

292 


f? 


o 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

which  formerly  made  its  own  exorbitant  price  for  fertil- 
izer, and  now  buys  this  material,  so  necessary  to  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  Irish  soil,  at  wholesale  rates.  It  mar- 
kets its  products  in  large  lots  in  the  best  markets,  and, 
to  some  extent,  dictates  tho  cost  of  transportation.  It 
raises  more  various  and  profitable  crops,  and  converts 
them  into  finished  product  in  its  own  factories.  It  fur- 
nishes itself  with  co-operative  credit,  so  that  it  is  possi- 
ble to  prevent  the  sacrifice  of  products  for  ready  money 
and  to  hold  them  until  the  market  is  most  favorable.  As 
an  inevitable  consequence  of  this  remarkable  industrial 
uplift,  the  social  and  intellectual  life  of  the  people  is 
steadily  rising. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  brief  reference  to  tho  work  of 
Mr.  Plunkett  and  his  associates  to  even  hint  at  all  the 
ways  in  which  they  are  striving  to  show  their  country- 
men that  the  road  to  prosperity  lies  through  co-opera- 
tion. Already  the  economic  gain  is  vast,  and  the  prom- 
ise even  more  so.  It  goes  almost  without  saying  that 
the  results  will  be  such  as  to  prevent  the  further  de- 
population of  the  island  by  misery  and  famine,  and  per- 
haps even  to  recall  thousands  of  its  sons  and  daughters 
from  over  the  sea. 

Ireland  had  no  problem  of  reclaiming  and  settling  new 
lands.  Her  vexed  question  was  how  to  make  comfort- 
able and  happy  the  people  who  already  crowded  her 
small  territory.  But  the  experience  which  has  been  re- 
ferred to  illustrates  two  points  wholly  pertinent  to  this 
chapter — the  virtues  of  organized  production  and  ex- 
change, and  the  necessity  of  enlightened  and  devoted 
leadership. 

We  may  go  back  to  tho  seventeenth  century  and  get 
293 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

light  for  a  portion  of  onr  present  problem  from  the  his- 
tory of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company.  Chartered  by 
royal  grant  and  given  possession  of  large  tracts  of  vir- 
gin land,  mostly  covered  with  dense  forests,  this  com- 
pany planned  settlements  that  still  flourish.  It  laid  out 
colonies,  or  "  plantations,"  obtained  and  organized  par- 
ties of  settlers,  appointed  leaders,  developed  trade,  planted 
institutions.  The  economic  conditions  of  that  day  dif- 
fered so  widely  from  those  now  prevailing  that  we  can 
learn  from  this  experience  only  the  abstract  advantages 
of  good  leadership  and  a  willing  following.  But  the  or- 
ganization which  should  do  to-day  for  the  surplus  peo- 
ple of  the  Atlantic  coast  and  the  surplus  lands  of  the 
Far  West  what  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  did  for 
the  surplus  people  of  England  and  the  surplus  lands  of 
New  England  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago,  would  in 
some  respects  follow  closely  upon  the  lines  of  its  distin- 
guished prototype. 

After  this  hasty  but  world-wide  glance  at  the  experi- 
ence of  the  past,  we  are  prepared  to  consider  what  is  re- 
quired for  the  successful  administration  of  a  broad  work 
of  co-operative  settlement  in  the  waste-places,  partic- 
ularly of  our  own  continent. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  yet  ready  to 
have  their  government  engage  in  a  work  pertaining  so 
closely  to  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  a  few  thousand,  or  hun- 
dreds of  thousands,  out  of  their  many  millions.  There 
would  be  great  opposition  to  the  use  of  the  national  means 
or  credit  in  founding  homes,  industries,  or  society  for  a 
comparatively  few.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  in  ac- 
cord with  our  best  traditions  or  the  genius  of  our  institu- 
tions that  it  should  be  done  by  a  church,  or  by  any  num- 

294 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

ber  of  churches,  nor  that  it  should  bo  undertaken  as  a 
matter  of  charity.  It  is  work  for  such  a  company  as  Dr, 
E.  R.  L.  Gould  founded  in  New  York  to  build  comfort- 
able suburban  homes  for  those  who  could  gradually  pay 
for  them.  It  is  a  work  worthy  to  command  such  popular 
support  as  Mr.  Plunkett  has  won  for  his  cause  in  Ire- 
land. It  is  a  work  which  calls  for  a  combination  of  busi- 
ness sagacity,  administrative  talent,  and  humanitarian 
impulses. 

An  organization  which  should  meet  the  present  needs 
of  the  American  people  in  this  respect,  and  rise  to  its 
full  opportunity,  would  acquire  as  much  of  the  idle  irri- 
gation property  in  the  West  as  was  needed  for  its  pur- 
pose, and  might  gradually  absorb  the  larger  portion  of 
such  properties.  It  would  prepare  to  found  colonies  in 
different  localities  capable  of  expansion,  so  that  after  a 
time  its  plans  would  be  in  operation  under  different  con- 
ditions of  climate,  soil,  and  markets.  It  would  demon- 
strate the  demand  for  its  existence  by  receiving  appli- 
cations from  indefinite  thousands  of  good  families,  who 
would  be  glad  to  put  their  labor  against  necessary  land 
and  capital.  It  would  set  apart  from  its  property,  by 
deeding  outright  to  a  responsible  trustee,  such  of  its 
lands  as  were  best  adapted  to  settlement,  issuing  against 
these  lands  bonds  bearing  six  per  cent,  interest  and  fall- 
ing due  in  ten  years.  Thus  these  bonds  would  be  spe- 
cifically secured  upon  the  lands  to  the  improvement  of 
.which  the  labor  and  capital  would  be  applied,  and  would 
have  the  further  guaranty  of  an  organization  owning 
valuable  property  created  by  former  investments. 

The  organization  would  then  proceed  to  obtain  its  set- 
tlers by  a  process  of  careful  selection  and  conduct  them 

205 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

to  the  colonies.  It  would  intrnst  the  work  of  adminis- 
tration to  men  of  great  ability  and  experience,  who 
would  systematically  direct  the  labor  to  the  highest  im- 
provement of  the  land  and  the  speediest  repayment  of 
the  capital.  In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  seen  the  in- 
dustrial and  social  organization  of  the  colony,  the  man- 
agement of  the  labor,  the  sources  of  profit,  and  the  method 
of  paying  interest  and  gradually  providing  for  the  sink- 
ing fund  from  wages  and  profits. 

This  plan  meets  every  requirement  of  the  situation, 
and  will  solve  the  problem  of  bringing  together  the  sur- 
plus land,  labor,  and  capital,  if  the  writer's  deductions 
from  the  world's  experience  arc  correct.  No  other  plan 
seems  feasible  for  this  time,  this  people,  and  this  country. 

It  is  necessary  to  say  a  closing  word  under  this  head 
to  those  who  will  object  to  the  feature  of  a  strong  con- 
trol of  the  colonists  on  the  ground  that  it  is  not  demo- 
cratic, and  that  it  violates  the  true  spirit  of  co-operation. 

The  whole  history  of  the  past  shows  that  those  who 
set  out  upon  the  work  of  colony -building  must  make 
themselves  amenable  to  leadership  in  order  to  succeed. 
The  writer  regrets  that  this  conclusion  has  been  forced 
upon  him  as  the  result  of  patient  studies  of  colonial 
effort  in  our  own  and  in  foreign  countries.  It  would 
bo  far  more  agreeable  to  say  that  all  the  people  need  is 
sufficient  capital,  then  access  to  the  land,  and  that  when 
these  are  provided  they  are  perfectly  capable  of  work- 
ing out  their  own  salvation.  But  such  is  not  the  fact. . 
They  will  waste  their  time  and  squander  their  resources 
in  learning  how  not  to  do  it.  They  will  fall  into  hope- 
less dissensions,  break  up  into  warring  factions,  and  so 
defeat  their  own  precious  ends.  They  will  set  the  stamp 

290 


CO-OPERATIVE    SETTLEMENT 

of  failure  upon  the  very  institutions  they  are  so  anxious 
to  establish  and  perpetuate.  They  will  even  set  back  for 
a  time  the  development  of  the  only  portion  of  the  United 
States  which  now  invites  them  to  homes  and  indepen- 
dence. 

The  time  may  come  when  all  men  will  be  equal  finan- 
cially, intellectually,  morally,  and  socially.  It  has  not 
come  yet.  The  many  must  still  seek  the  leading  of  the 
few,  and  happy  are  they  who  can  receive  it  under  con- 
ditions which  guarantee  to  them  the  full  fruits  of  their 
individual  labor  in  small  things  and  of  their  co-operative 
work  and  capital  in  largo  things. 

A  colony,  under  modern  conditions,  is  an  organized 
community.  Whatever  is  organized  requires  competent 
leaders  and  obedient  followers.  No  man  who  followed 
Dewey  at  Manila,  or  Roosevelt  to  the  heights  of  San 
Juan,  was  ashamed  to  take  the  commands  of  his  superior 
officer.  Neither  in  the  capital  city  of  the  Philippines 
nor  upon  the  rugged  hills  of  Cuba  were  there  prizes  so 
precious  to  humanity  as  those  which  lie  fallow  in  the 
voiceless  valleys  of  the  West.  The  man  who  will  not  in- 
cur discipline  to  plant  his  flag  upon  the  shores  of  pros- 
perity or  the  heights  of  success  deserves  no  better  fate 
than  to  be  trampled  under  the  feet  of  his  stronger  fel- 
lows in  the  struggle  for  existence.  The  pride  which  will 
not  serve  in  the  ranks  is  a  pride  that  will  never  wear  the 
star  or  the  epaulet. 


CHAPTER  VI 
ADJUSTING   OLD   IDEALS  TO  NEW  CONDITIONS 

WE  have  now  scanned  the  wide  field  open  to  domes- 
tic expansion  and  considered  the  methods  by  which  it 
may  be  conquered  and  occupied  by  the  masses  of  our 
people.  We  have  observed  the  character  of  institutions 
which  are  growing  up  in  conformity  to  the  physical  con- 
ditions and  environment  of  the  West,  and  have  dwelt 
upon  the  amplification  and  extension  of  these  industrial 
and  social  principles  as  the  means  of  planting  a  wide- 
spread civilization  in  the  vast  regions  to  be  colonized  in 
the  future. 

It  remains  to  ask  ourselves  these  vital  questions  :  Do 
these  methods  and  institutions  accord  with  the  traditions 
and  economic  ideals  of  the  dominant  race  ?  Are  they 
suited  to  the  changed  conditions  under  which  we  livo 
and  to  the  fateful  struggle  between  machinery  and  capi- 
tal on  one  hand  and  individual  man  on  the  other  ? 

We  have  dealt  with  our  subject  almost  exclusively 
from  the  stand-point  of  agriculture.  It  has  been  truth- 
fully said  that  "  the  farmer  is  the  only  necessary  man." 
Agriculture  is  the  foundation  of  civilization.  The  insti- 
tutions of  every  people  are  chiefly  influenced  by  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  soil  is  owned.  The  race  which  sprang 
from  the  Saxons  has  always  clung  closely  to  the  ideal  of 

298 


OLD    IDEALS    AND    NEW    CONDITIONS 

individual  proprietorship.  When  this  race  planted  itself 
in  England  it  immediately  took  firm  possession  of  the  soil. 
It  was  thus  that  it  was  able  to  overcome  the  Celts,  to 
absorb  the  Angles,  to  buy  off  and  then  repel  the  Danes, 
and  even  to  survive  the  Norman  conquerors. 

When  the  children  of  the  Saxon  farmers  and  small 
tradesmen  first  settled  in  America  they  proceeded  to 
make  immediate  provision  against  the  possibility  of  land- 
lordism and  great  estates.  They  did  this  by  rejecting  the 
law  of  primogeniture,  by  distributing  the  land  equally 
among  all  the  children  of  the  deceased,  and  by  mak- 
ing transfers  of  land  among  the  living  as  easy  as  pos- 
sible. So  they  rooted  their  democracy  in  the  owner- 
ship of  the  soil.  Individual  proprietors  owned  homes 
and  farms,  and  rose  or  fell  according  to  their  thrift  and 
industry,  or  their  lack  of  these  qualities.  Individual  in- 
itiative was  left  untrammelled,  yet  in  things  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  one  man  the  colonists  acted  upon  a  plan 
of  natural  and  simple  co-operation.  Fishing  was  their 
first  industry,  and  here  they  worked  in  groups,  each  man 
sharing  the  catch  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  his  ser- 
vice. The  social  and  religious  life  of  the  community 
was  highly  organized  for  the  time  and  place. 

The  tendencies  of  development  in  the  West,  and  the 
definite  plans  of  colonization  suggested  in  previous  chap- 
ters of  this  book,  are  distinctly  in  line  with  the  traditions 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  so  far  as  land  ownership  is  con- 
cerned. There  are,  and  there  are  to  be  yet  more  in  the 
future,  vast  multitudes  of  men  secure  in  the  possession 
of  small  landed  estates.  These  men  are  free  to  use  their 
land  as  they  see  fit,  and  to  have  the  exclusive  enjoyment 
of  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor.  They  do  not  depend 

299  'TON  ACCESSION 

BANCROFT  LIBRARY 


upon  the  community,  but  the  community  depends  upon 
them. 

Social  science  has  clearly  demonstrated  that  when  condi- 
tions encourage  dependence  upon  the  community  or  State, 
self-reliance  and  individual  ambition  and  energy  diminish 
in  proportion,  and  that  this  result  inevitably  lessens  the 
power  of  the  State  to  assist  those  who  are  more  and  more 
inclined  to  lean  upon  it.  There  is  no  such  danger  in  this 
programme  of  social  progress.  "  The  only  necessary  man  " 
is  hero  entirely  dependent  upon  himself.  The  community 
will  neither  water  his  lands  nor  reap  his  crops.  lie  works 
or  he  perishes.  He  thrives  according  to  his  intelligence 
and  industry,  or  fails  to  thrive  because  of  his  ignorance 
and  sloth.  For  his  ignorance  and  sloth  he  is  himself  solely 
responsible,  because  he  has  the  facilities  of  a  good  educa- 
tion and  every  incentive  to  intelligent  and  regular  labor. 
The  community  of  which  such  men  are  the  units  is  cer- 
tain to  be  healthy  and  strong,  because  their  independence 
and  prosperity  will  constantly  feed  rather  than  draw  upon 
it. 

In  providing  for  the  co-operative  ownership  of  stores, 
factories,  commercial  associations,  and  other  instrumen- 
talities of  manufacture,  distribution,  and  exchange,  do  we 
depart  from  the  traditions  of  the  race  ?  If  so,  it  is  not 
the  race  nor  its  ideals  which  have  changed,  but  the  con- 
ditions of  industry  and  commerce. 

The  settlers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  even  of 
fifty  years  ago,  had  little  need  of  co-operative  industries. 
Their  women  spun  the  flax  and  wove  the  wool.  Their 
men  made  the  shoes  and  furniture.  Their  relations  to 
outside  trade  and  industry  were  very  slight.  They  took 
from  their  fields,  their  woodlands,  and  their  herds  nearly 

300 


OLD    IDEALS    AND    NEW    CONDITIONS 

all  which  they  used  for  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  In 
almost  nothing  did  they  pass  beyond  the  sphere  of  the 
individual  man. 

To-day  expensive  machinery  manufactures  in  great 
factories  what  the  simple  tools  and  crude  art  of  the  fore- 
fathers supplied.  Every  part  of  the  world  is  in  close 
touch  with  every  other  part,  and  all  production  beyond 
the  power  of  the  individual  man  must  be  organized 
either  as  a  private,  a  public,  or  a  co-operative  enterprise. 
The  choice  lies  in  the  servitude  of  the  masses  to  great 
employers  and  their  transformation  into  a  kind  of  fac- 
tory peasantry,  or  in  state  Socialism,  or  in  proprietor- 
ship vested  in  a  multitude  of  small  shareholders.  Which 
of  these  three  most  nearly  accords  to  Anglo-Saxon  habit, 
thought,  and  ideals  ? 

Clearly  it  is  the  third  method,  since  the  fundamental 
idea  of  this  race  and  people  has  always  been  that  each 
man  is  entitled  to  the  fruits  of  his  labor.  The  ideal  is 
that  each  man  shall  receive  exactly  what  he  produces — 
no  more,  no  less.  Under  the  conditions  prevailing  be- 
fore the  advent  of  labor-saving  machinery  and  the  ac- 
cumulation of  great  private  fortunes,  it  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  realize  this  supreme  aspiration  of  our  race.  But 
in  planning  new  institutions  it  is  highly  essential  to  take 
the  changed  conditions  into  account. 

If  the  operation  of  stores,  factories,  and  other  lines  of 
business  requiring  large  capital  is  left  to  purely  private 
enterprise,  it  is  impossible  for  the  vast  majority  of  men 
to  obtain  and  enjoy  the  full  fruits  of  their  own  labor. 
Massachusetts  industrial  statistics  show  that  the  aver- 
age product  of  the  factory  -  worker  in  that  State  is 
about  two  thousand  dollars,  and  the  average  wage  less 

301 


TUB    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

than  five  hundred  dollars.  It  is  thus  apparent  that  the 
operative  produces  four  times  as  much  as  he  receives, 
and  that  three-fourths  of  the  fruits  of  his  labor  is  used 
to  feed,  clothe,  and  educate  other  men's  children  rather 
than  his  own.  This  result  is  not  due  to  the  greed  or  in- 
humanity of  employing  capitalists,  but  is  the  natural  re- 
sult of  individual  enterprise  under  modern  business  con- 
ditions. 

A  system  which  transfers  to  a  few  the  fruits  of  labor 
performed  by  the  many  is  a  system  which  should  not  de- 
liberately be  chosen  as  a  part  of  the  economic  struct- 
ure we  are  planning  for  regions  which  remain  almost 
wholly  to  be  settled  in  the  future.  Wise  men  do  not 
repeat  the  blunders  of  their  fathers  when  the  evil  con- 
sequences'have  become  apparent. 

Socialism,  though  it  may  be  the  ultimate  goal,  is  a 
remedy  for  which  the  world  is  not  yet  prepared,  and  least 
of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  world.  The  present  strength 
of  its  propaganda  is  not  among  those  who  speak  the 
English  tongue.  We  may  admit  the  evils  of  unrestrained 
individualism  applied  to  large  enterprises  under  the  new 
business  conditions,  without  flying  to  a  system  which 
obliterates  the  individual.  The  surpassing  virility  of 
our  race  and  people  in  economic  and  political  ways  is 
doubtless  largely  due  to  the  scope  which  their  institu- 
tions have  permitted  to  private  initiative,  energy,  and 
ambition.  We  cannot  safely  take  these  essential  quali- 
ties out  of  our  life.  They  are  more  necessary  to  the  de- 
velopment of  new  countries  than  to  the  established  rou- 
tine of  old  communities. 

What  is  needed  is  a  true  adjustment  of  the  relations 
of  individual  to  associated  man.  Socialism  cannot  fur- 


OLD    IDEALS    AND    NEW    CONDITIONS 

nish  the  solution  of  this  problem  until  education  and 
Christianity  shall  have  vastly  raised  the  common  stand- 
ard of  intelligence  and  morals.  Under  Socialism  some 
men  would  receive  more  than  the  fruits  of  their  labor, 
while  others  would  receive  less.  This  result  would  be 
due  not  only  to  differences  of  talent,  but  of  industry 
and  character.  The  divine  injunction  was,  "In  the 
sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  cat  bread/'  not,  "In  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  faces  shalt  thou  eat  bread,"  nor 
even,  "  Partly  in  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces."  Jus- 
tice is  satisfied,  according  to  the  Anglo -Saxon  ideal, 
when  men  are  given  equal  opportunities.  Neither  So- 
cialism nor  unrestricted  private  control  of  large  indus- 
trial affairs  meets  this  fundamental  condition  under  the 
circumstances  of  modern  life. 

Let  us  see  how  co-operative  enterprise  adjusts  itself  to 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  business  situation,  as  well  as 
to  the  racial  tradition  so  precious  to  our  people. 

In  the  operation  of  a  factory  there  are  the  two  neces- 
sary elements  of  capital  and  labor — the  one  representing 
buildings,  machinery,  and  working  funds  ;  the  other, 
productive  power.  Under  co-operation  the  capital  is 
supplied  by  a  large  number  of  shareholders  who  have 
saved  the  money  from  the  proceeds  of  their  own  labor. 
It  is  perfectly  true  that  "capital  is  stored  labor,"  but 
the  problem  is  to  have  it  stored  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  performed  it.  Just  here  is  the  essential  difference 
between  the  private  and  the  co-operative  factory.  The 
former  is  mostly  capitalized  by  those  who  organized  and 
exploited  the  labor  of  others,  while  the  latter  is  capital- 
ized by  those  who  actually  worked  and  saved,  so  that 
their  factory  investment  represents  the  fruits  of  their 

303 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

labor,  and  they  are  as  much  entitled  to  receive  its  con- 
tinuous results  as  if  they  had  invested  it  in  poultry  or 
cows. 

It  is  neither  necessary  nor  desirable  that  stockholdings 
in  such  an  enterprise  be  exactly  equal,  since  men  differ 
both  in  their  earning  and  their  saving  capacities.  The 
important  consideration  is  that  all  shall  have  the  same 
opportunity  to  earn,  to  save,  to  invest,  and  to  reap  the 
reward  of  investment.  Private  enterprise  denies  men 
this  opportunity  and  restricts  it  exclusively  to  those  who 
have  large  capital,  generally  acquired  by  exploiting  the 
labor  or  taking  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  others. 
Co-operative  enterprise  opens  the  door  to  all  and  permits 
every  man  to  participate  in  the  profits  of  those  industries 
which  are  beyond  the  reach  of  individual  strength  or 
capital.  It  is  easy  to  erect  safeguards  to  prevent  control 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  a  few  individuals. 

Co-operation  shares  its  profits  with  labor  as  justly  as 
with  capital.  While  the  wage-scale  must  necessarily  con- 
form to  the  world's  standard  in  cost  of  production,  the 
worker  has  the  opportunity  to  invest  his  savings  in  the 
industry  and  to  share  in  a  premium  paid  to  all  who  at- 
tain a  quality  of  work  above  a  fixed  standard.  Skilled 
labor  must  receive  higher  pay  than  unskilled,  and  men 
fitted  by  ability,  knowledge,  and  experience  to  fill  places 
of  high  responsibility  must  command  the  same  wages  in 
co-operative  as  in  private  employment. 

Co-operation  thus  furnishes  a  method  by  which  the 
masses  of  men  may  obtain  the  benefits  of  labor -saving 
machinery  and  of  modern  production  upon  a  large  scale 
and  preserve  themselves  from  degradation  or  ruin  at  the. 
handri  of  those  new  economic  forces.  It  is  a  method 

304 


OLD    IDEALS    AND    NEW    CONDITIONS 

which  adjusts  itself  to  tho  old  ideal  of  individual  in- 
dependence and  of  giving  the  laborer  the  full  fruit  of 
his  toil,  yet  provides  for  that  economic  solidarity  which 
forms  so  conspicuous  and  reasonable  a  part  of  tho  de- 
mands of  radical  social  reformers.  In  this  case,  unlike 
Socialism,  solidarity  is  effected  without  weakening  tho 
power  of  tho  community  by  first  weakening  tho  power 
of  the  individuals  who  compose  the  community. 

Co-operation  is  no  idle  dream  or  vague  speculation. 
It  is  one  of  the  fixed  facts  in  the  world's  economy.  In 
one  form  or  another  it  flourishes  in  many  countries,  but 
it  has  found  most  fertile  soil  among  English-speaking 
peoples.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  Utah  and  in  Ireland  among  agri- 
cultural populations,  and  by  building  and  loan  societies 
in  cities  and  towns  throughout  the  United  States.  In 
England  co-operation  has  assumed  enormous  proportions, 
and  is  extending  rapidly  in  every  direction.  It  conducts 
stores,  farms,  and  all  varieties  of  shops,  factories,  and 
mills.  In  some  instances  it  even  maintains  railroad  and 
steamship  lines.  It  has  surplus  profits  to  invest  in  new 
enterprises,  in  model  town  and  suburban  homes  for  the 
workers,  and  even  in  a  delightful  summer  retreat  for 
convalescents  among  the  Scottish  Highlands.  Mr.  Henry 
D.  Lloyd's  recent  book  on  Labor  Copartnership  did  much 
to  enlighten  the  world  concerning  tho  wonderful  but  si- 
lent movement  which  is  enabling  the  British  masses  to 
help  themselves  and  each  other  along  the  upward  path 
of  improved  social  and  industrial  conditions. 

The  growth  of  co-operative  fruit  exchanges  in  Califor- 
nia is  another  luminous  instance  which  goes  to  prove  the 
capacity  of  our  race  to  settle  its  own  problems  through 
u  305 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

associative  effort.  These  exchanges  are  doing  an  annual 
business  of  many  millions  and  performing  the  various 
functions  of  collecting,  packing,  shipping,  and  marketing 
a  vast  product  over  a  large  area.  They  were  the  out- 
growth of  conditions  which  had  become  intolerable,  and 
furnish  further  interesting  proof  of  the  fact  that  when 
an  intelligent  and  self-reliant  people  have  suffered  suf- 
ficiently they  will  find  the  way  out. 

In  the  plan  of  co-operative  settlement  outlined  in  a 
previous  chapter,  attention  was  chiefly  directed  to  agri- 
culture and  small  industries  closely  related  to  the  soil. 
The  same  business  principles  are  applicable  to  larger  in- 
dustrial plants  and  to  the  utilization  of  natural  wealth 
other  than  the  land.  With  co-operative  capital  and  la- 
bor, valuable  forests,  quarries,  and  mines  of  both  base 
and  precious  metals  could  be  made  to  yield  their  profits 
for  the  enrichment  of  the  many  rather  than  of  the  few. 
But  this  movement  is  yet  in  its  early  stages,  struggling 
to  vindicate  the  truth  of  its  fundamental  principle  of 
the  combination  of  surplus  land,  labor,  and  natural  re- 
sources under  conditions  which  furnish  security  and 
profits  to  each.  Its  horizon  will  constantly  expand  until 
it  shall  include  the  world-wide  sky. 

The  common  objection  to  co-operation  is  that  it  does 
not  furnish  the  ultimate  remedy  for  all  social  ills.  It  is 
said  that  it  will  do  little  good  to  put  a  thousand  com- 
peting co-operative  factories  and  farms  in  place  of  a 
thousand  competing  private  factories  and  farms.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  a  gain  to  have  the  profits  of  industry  and 
trade  distributed  more  evenly  throughout  the  commu- 
nity. In  the  second  place,  when  competition  and  over- 
production shall  lead  to  the  federation  of  co-operative  in- 

•   806 


OLD    IDEALS    AND    NEW    CONDITIONS 

dustry,  as  is  already  the  case  with  private  enterprise,  the 
result  can  only  operate  to  the  benefit  of  the  masses.  A 
trust  or  series  of  trusts  which  should  include  the  entire 
public  would  be  wholly  harmless,  since  it  would  be  organ- 
ized for  the  people  rather  than  against  them. 

It  is  not  important  to  speculate  as  to  what  lies  beyond 
co-operation.  The  thing  itself  is  a  distinct  forward  de- 
velopment in  the  work  of  economic  evolution.  It  comes 
as  the  natural  product  of  a  wonderful  era  of  competition, 
which  has  ended  in  the  union  of  competitors  as  the 
price  of  self-preservation.  During  the  closing  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century  Capital  has  taught  Labor  the  great 
lessons  of  combination,  association,  and  organization.  It 
remains  for  Labor  to  put  these  lessons  into  practical 
effect  during  the  twentieth  century,  and  to  make  that 
period  luminous  with  the  rise  of  the  common  man. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LOOKING  FORWARD  TO  THE   GREATER   REPUBLIC 

IMAGINE  the  Republic  of  the  twentieth  century,  all 
its  magnificent  resources  under  process  of  development 
on  lines  of  enlightened  co-operation,  approved  alike  by 
the  sane  business  sense  and  the  humanitarian  instincts  of 
the  people ! 

Behold  the  out-swinging  gates  of  the  West,  opening  at 
last  the  wealth  of  surplus  resources  to  the  throngs  of 
surplus  people — the  gates  unlocked  by  the  magic  of  sur- 
plus capital ! 

See  how  the  "uneasy"  have  "planted  new  colonies," 
as  Edward  Eggleston  said  they  did  in  all  past  stages  of 
the  American  emigration;  how,  under  the  impulse  of  this 
new  forward  march,  the  Republic  has  again  surpassed 
the  monarchies  of  the  Old  World  "with  giant  strides," 
as  Andrew  Carnegie  has  shown  that  it  did  in  a  past 
era;  how  "the  desert  has  blossomed  with  the  homes  of 
men,"  as  Thomas  B.  Reed  predicted ;  and  then  observe 
how  all  these  things  have  defeated  the  grim  prophecy  of 
Lord  Macaulay  !  But  the  material  triumph  is  only  the 
poorest  aspect  of  the  new  achievement. 

Here  are  millions  of  free  men  who  live  upon  their 
own  soil,  under  their  own  roofs,  and  work  for  them- 
selves. Here  is  a  society  which  has  mastered  the  ma- 
DOS 


LOOKING  TO  THE  GREATER  REPUBLIC 

chine  and  made  it  work  for  man  rather  than  against 
him.  Here  is  a  people  who  have  organized  capital  so 
that  it  works  for  the  many  rather  than  the  few. 

Here  is  the  finest  flower  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization, 
with  personal  independence  and  ambition  still  preserved 
as  the  robust  inspiration  of  all  progress,  but  with  every- 
thing beyond  the  sphere  of  the  individual  firmly  held 
by  associated  man. 

Here  are  communities  which  have  averted  catastrophe 
by  adjusting  old  ideals  to  new  conditions — by  building 
their  economic  edifice  on  the  three  foundation-stones  of 
private  ownership  of  homes  and  farms,  co-operative 
ownership  of  stores  and  industries,  and  public  owner- 
ship of  public  utilities. 

Instead  of  crowded  cities  festering  with  vice  and  pov- 
erty, throughout  Arid  America  are  farms  that  blend  into 
beautiful  towns,  and  towns  that  shade  almost  impercepti- 
bly into  peaceful  farms.  Here  are  country  people  who 
enjoy  all  the  advantages  of  town  life,  and  townspeople 
who  know  the  independence  of  the  country.  Here  are 
social  conditions  where  the  entire  population  enjoys  the 
privileges  of  the  club  and  the  blessings  of  the  public 
library. 

Here  are  schools  and  colleges  training  young  men  and 
women  not  only  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  but  in  the 
equally  valuable  lessons  of  co-operative  production  and 
administration. 

In  a  word,  here  is  America,  under  the  powerful  domi- 
nance of  the  ancient  Saxon  spirit,  engaged  in  the  con- 
quest of  its  waste-places  and  the  making  of  new  forms 
of  civilization  worthy  of  the  race,  the  place,  and  the  age. 

In  this  vision  of  the  future  there  is  nothing  impracti- 

309 


THE    CONQUEST    OF    ARID    AMERICA 

cable.  The  field,  the  opportunity,  and  the  people  are 
ready.  The  hour  is  ripe  for  the  advance.  The  silent 
command  that  speaks  to  men's  minds  through  resistless 
economic  forces  has  gone  forth. 

The  American  people  will  press  on,  not  through  blood- 
shed or  violent  change,  but  wisely,  patiently,  and  surely 
— by  gradual  industrial  and  social  evolution — to  the  real- 
ization of  their  great  destiny, 

That  destiny  is  to  illustrate  the  highest  possibilities  of 
democratic  institutions. 


APPENDIX 


NOTE  AS  TO  METHODS  OF  IRRIGATION 

To  those  who  are  unfamiliar  with  the  life  of  the  arid  region 
the  actual  process  of  irrigation  seems  a  deep  mystery.  They 
regard  it  as  an  effort  to  overturn  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
think  it  must  be  accompanied  by  a  struggle  as  severe  as  it  is 
inscrutable.  But  irrigation  is,  after  all,  a  perfectly  natural, 
and  even  a  familiar,  process.  The  man  who  waters  his  plat 
of  grass  and  the  woman  who  waters  her  door-yard  pansies 
are  irrigators  in  a  rude  and  humble  way.  The  citizen  who 
grumbles  at  the  sight  of  withered  lawns  in  a  public  park 
during  a  dry  summer  yearns  for  irrigation  without  knowing 
it.  A  generation  which  has  harnessed  the  lightning  should 
see  nothing  incongruous  in  the  ancient  expedient  of  storing 
the  rain  and  distributing  it  to  meet  the  varying  needs  of 
plants  which  nourish  human  life. 

The  control  of  water  for  irrigation  in  the  West  presents 
about  the  same  problems  to  the  engineer  as  the  control  of 
water  for  domestic  purposes  in  large  cities  and  towns.  The 
water  must  be  diverted  from  a  flowing  stream  at  a  level  suf- 
ficiently high  to  command  the  territory  to  be  irrigated ;  or  it 
must  be  impounded  in  reservoirs  at  a  season  of  floods  or  un- 
usual flow,  such  as  occurs  everywhere  when  the  ice  and  snow 
are  melting ;  or  it  must  be  sought  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth 
by  means  of  wells  and  lifted  to  the  surface  by  pumps,  except 

311 


APPENDIX 

in  the  case  of  artesian  waters,  which  flow  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  well  by  reason  of  their  own  pressure. 

The  principal  difference  between  securing  a  supply  for  do- 
mestic and  for  agricultural  purposes  is  that  in  the  case  of  the 
former  the  water  must  be  as  pure  as  possible,  while  in  the 
case  of  the  latter  the  impurities  which  gather  in  ponds  and 
streams  have  a  distinct  commercial  value  as  fertilizers.  The 
sewage  of  Paris  is  used  for  irrigation  purposes  with  wonder- 
ful effect.  The  same  thing  is  done  at  Los  Angeles,  and 
doubtless  will  be  done  in  many  places  hereafter.  Neither  is 
it  necessary,  as  a  rule,  to  make  such  elaborate  provision  for 
the  distribution  of  water  through  underground  pipes  in  the 
case  of  agriculture  as  in  that  of  domestic  water  supply.  In 
the  vast  majority  of  instances  irrigation  water  flows  in  open 
channels.  Where  it  is  otherwise  it  is  because  the  precious 
fluid  is  scarce,  and  therefore  dear,  so  that  every  drop  must  be 
guarded  against  loss  by  evaporation  or  by  seepage  into  the 
ground. 

Irrigation  works  in  the  West  range  from  rude  and  simple 
ditches,  taking  their  supplies  from  mountain  brooks  where 
the  water  has  been  diverted  by  means  of  small  brush  dams,  to 
great  masonry  walls  which  block  the  outlet  of  deep  canyons, 
holding  back  the  water,  which  is  transported  through  pipes, 
flumes,  and  cemented  ditches  to  rich  lands  miles  away.  In  the 
one  case  the  works  have  been  constructed  by  a  small  association 
of  farmers,  using  their  own  labor  and  teams ;  in  the  other, 
millions  of  eastern  and  foreign  capital  have  been  invested. 
In  both  cases  the  water  is  led  through  main  canals  to  central 
points  in  the  territory  to  be  reclaimed.  These  mains  are  of 
all  sizes,  depending  entirely  upon  the  volume  of  water  re- 
quired. They  are  frequently  not  more  than  six  feet  wide, 
though  some  of  the  canals  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  are  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  width.  From  these  mains  lat- 
eral ditches  reach  out  in  various  directions.  The  individual 
farmer  taps  the  lateral  with  a  shallow  ditch,  usually  made 

312 


APPENDIX 

with  a  plough,  and  thus  conducts  the  water  where  he  wants  it 
through  his  own  private  system  of  distributers.  The  man- 
agement of  the  waters,  when  the  system  has  once  been  per- 
fected, is  so  simple  that  a  child  can  attend  to  it.  Furnishing 
arid  lands  with  irrigation  facilities  is  really  a  less  formidable 
task  than  supplying  cities  with  water  for  domestic  and  fire 
purposes.  The  one  process  is  no  more  mysterious  and  un- 
natural than  the  other. 

Although  irrigation  is  both  ancient  and  universal,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  never  dealt  with  it  in  a  largo  way  until  the  last 
half-century,  when  he  found  it  to  be  the  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  settlement  in  large  portions  of  western  America,  Aus- 
tralia, and  South  Africa.  Through  all  the  centuries  of  the 
past  the  art  has  been  the  exclusive  possession  of  Indian, 
Latin,  and  Mongolian  races.  Its  earliest  modern  traces  in 
this  country  are  found  in  the  small  gardens  of  the  Mission 
fathers  of  southern  California.  They  brought  the  method 
from  Mexico  and  taught  it  to  the  Indians.  But  the  real 
cradle  of  American  irrigation  as  a  practical  industry  is 

Utah.  Bancroft  Library 

In  the  hands  of  the  Indians  and  Mexicans  of  the  South- 
west irrigation  was  a  stagnant  art,  but  the  white  population 
studied  it  with  the  same  enthusiasm  it  bestowed  upon  elec- 
tricity and  new  mining  processes.  The  lower  races  merely 
knew  that  if  crops  were  expected  to  grow  on  dry  land,  they 
must  be  artificially  watered.  They  proceeded  to  pour  on  the 
water  by  the  rudest  method.  The  Anglo-Saxon  demanded  to 
know  why  crops  required  water,  and  how  and  when  it  could 
best  be  supplied  to  meet  their  diverse  needs.  He  has  thus 
approached  by  gradual  steps  true  scientific  methods,  which 
are  producing  results  unknown  before  in  any  part  of  the 
world. 

The  earliest  metho4  of  irrigation  is  known  as  "  flooding," 
and  is  generally  applied  by  means  of  shallow  basins.  A  plot 
of  ground  near  the  river  or  ditch  from  which  water  is  to  be 

313 


APPENDIX 

drawn  is  inclosed  by  low  embankments  called  checks.  These 
checks  are  multiplied  until  the  whole  field  is  covered.  The 
water  is  then  drawn  into  the  highest  basin,  permitted  to 
stand  until  the  ground  is  thoroughly  soaked,  and  then  drawn 
off  by  a  small  gate  into  the  next  basin.  This  process  is  re- 
peated until  the  entire  field  is  irrigated.  This  is  the  system 
practised  on  the  Nile,  where  the  basins  sometimes  cover  sev- 
eral square  miles  each,  while  in  the  West  they  are  often  no 
more  than  four  hundred  feet  square.  There  is  both  a  crude 
and  a  skilful  way  to  accomplish  the  operation  of  flooding,  and 
there  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  results  obtained  by  the  two 
methods.  The  Indian  and  Mexican  irrigators,  in  their  igno- 
rance and  laziness,  seldom  attempt  to  grade  the  surface  of  the 
ground.  They  permit  water  to  remain  in  stagnant  pools 
where  there  are  depressions,  while  high  places  stand  out  as 
dusty  islands  for  generations.  All  except  very  sandy  soils 
bake  in  the  hot  sunshine  after  being  flooded,  and  the  crude 
way  to  remedy  the  matter  is  to  turn  on  more  water.  Water 
in  excess  is  an  injury,  and  both  the  soil  and  the  crops  re- 
sent this  method  of  treatment. 

The  skilful  irrigator  grades  the  soil  to  an  even  slope  of 
about  one  inch  to  every  hundred  inches,  filling  depressions 
and  levelling  high  places.  He  "rushes"  the  water  over  the 
plot  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  when  the  ground  has  dried 
sufficiently  cultivates  the  soil  thoroughly,  thus  allowing  the 
air  to  penetrate  it.  The  best  irrigators  have  abandoned  the 
check  system  altogether,  and  have  invented  better  methods 
of  flooding  the  crops.  Cereals  and  grasses  must  always  be 
irrigated  by  flooding,  but  the  check  system  seems  likely  to 
remain  only  in  the  land  of  Spanish  speech  and  tradition,  where 
it  was  born.  In  Colorado  wheat  and  grass  are  generally  irri- 
gated by  a  system  of  shallow  plough  furrows  run  diagonally 
across  a  field.  The  water  is  turned  from  these  upon  the 
ground,  and  permitted  to  spread  out  into  a  hundred  small 
rills,  following  the  contour  of  the  land.  Some  farmers  bc- 

314 


APPENDIX 

stow  great  pains  upon  this  method,  and  succeed  in  wetting 
the  ground  very  evenly.  Another  method  of  flooding  fields 
is  now  much  used  in  connection  with  alfalfa,  a  wonderful 
forage  plant  extensively  cultivated  throughout  the  arid  region. 
This  produces  three  crops  a  year  in  the  north  and  six  crops 
in  the  south,  and  is  not  only  eaten  by  stock,  but  by  poultry 
and  swine.  To  find  the  best  method  of  watering  this  valua- 
ble crop  has  been  the  object  of  careful  study  and  experiment 
in  the  West.  It  is  now  accomplished  by  means  of  shallow 
indentations  or  creases,  which  are  not  as  large  as  furrows,  but 
accomplish  the  same  purpose.  These  are  made  by  a  simple 
implement  at  intervals  of  about  twelve  inches.  They  effect  a 
very  thorough  and  even  wetting  of  the  ground. 

The  scientific  side  of  irrigation  is  to  be  studied  rather  in 
connection  with  the  culture  of  fruit  and  vegetables  than  with 
field  crops.  It  is  here  that  the  English-speaking  irrigators 
of  the  West  have  produced  their  best  results.  California  has 
accomplished  more  than  any  other  locality,  but  nothing  was 
learned  even  there  until  the  man  from  the  North  had  sup- 
planted the  Spanish  irrigator.  The  ideal  climatic  conditions 
of  California  attracted  both  wealth  and  intelligence  into  its 
irrigation  industry.  Scarcity  of  water  and  high  land  values 
operated  to  promote  the  study  of  ideal  methods.  Where 
water  is  abundant  it  is  carried  in  open  ditches,  and  little 
thought  is  given  to  the  items  of  seepage  through  the  soil 
and  loss  by  evaporation.  Under  such  conditions  water  is 
lavishly  used,  frequently  to  the  injury  rather  than  the  bene- 
fit of  crops.  But  in  southern  California  water  is  as  gold, 
and  is  sought  for  in  mountain  tunnels  and  in  the  beds  of 
streams.  A  thing  so  dearly  obtained  is  not  to  be  carelessly 
wasted  before  it  reaches  the  place  of  use.  Hence,  steep  and 
narrow  ditches  cemented  on  the  bottom,  or  steel  pipes  and 
wooden  flumes,  are  employed. 

This  precious  water  is  applied  to  the  soil  by  means  of 
small  furrows  run  between  the  trees  or  rows  of  vegetables. 

315 


The  ground  has  first  been  evenly  graded  on  the  face  of  each 
slope.  The  aim  of  the  skilful  irrigator  is  to  allow  the  water 
to  saturate  the  ground  evenly  in  each  direction,  so  as  to 
reach  the  roots  of  the  tree  or  plant.  The  stream  is  small, 
and  creeps  slowly  down  the  furrow  to  the  end  of  the  orchard, 
where  any  surplus  is  absorbed  by  a  strip  of  alfalfa,  which 
acts  like  a  sponge.  The  land  is  kept  thoroughly  cultivated, 
and  in  the  best  orchards  no  weed  or  spear  of  grass  is  ever 
seen ;  the  water  is  too  costly  to  waste  in  the  nourishment 
of  weeds.  Moreover,  it  is  desired  to  leave  the  soil  open  to 
the  action  of  air  and  sunshine.  Nowhere  in  the  world  is  so 
much  care  given  to  the  aeration  of  the  soil  as  in  the  irrigated 
orchards  and  gardens  of  the  West.  Too  much  water  reduces 
the  temperature  of  the  soil,  sometimes  develops  hard-pan,  and 
more  frequently  brings  alkali  to  the  surface.  For  these  rea- 
sons modern  science  has  enforced  the  economical  use  of 
water,  reversing  the  crude  Mexican  custom  of  prodigal  waste- 
fulness. The  success  of  the  furrow  method  depends  some- 
what upon  the  texture  of  the  soil,  and  there  are  places  where 
it  cannot  be  used  at  all.  Such  localities  are  not  considered 
favorable  to  fruit  culture. 

Of  late  years  in  California  the  application  of  water  by  fur- 
rows has  been  brought  to  a  marvellous  degree  of  perfection. 
What  is  known  as  the  "  Redlands  system  "  is  the  best  type 
of  irrigation  methods  known  in  the  world.  Under  this  sys- 
tem a  small  wooden  flume  or  box  is  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  orchard.  An  opening  is  made  opposite  each  furrow,  and 
through  this  the  water  flows  in  the  desired  quantity,  being 
operated  by  a  small  gate  or  slide.  The  aperture  regulates 
the  flow  of  water  accurately,  and  the  system  is  so  simple  that, 
after  it  is  once  adjusted,  its  operation  is  as  easy  as  the  turn- 
ing of  a  faucet.  The  farmer  who  grows  his  crops  on  a  fer- 
tile soil,  under  almost  cloudless  skies,  with  a  system  con- 
trolling the  moisture  as  effective  as  this,  may  be  said  to  have 
mastered  the  forces  of  nature.  The  quality  of  the  fruit  has 

816 


APPENDIX 


improved  immensely  since  the  California  methods  were  per- 
fected. Every  fruit-grower  realizes  that  the  profit  in  his 
business  comes  mostly  from  the  first  grade  of  fruit.  Scien- 
tific irrigation  makes  it  possible  for  him  largely  to  increase 
the  percentage  of  the  best  fruit,  and  the  difference  which 
this  makes  in  the  earning  capacity  of  his  acres  is  surprising. 


£MM  TncC.  6TAJ*D3  O*»  A  LITTtA 
M1U.  frO  ntbn  Aft  TO  PvltVENT 
l»«  WATtH  TOUIMING  rt. 


Other  methods  of  furrow  irrigation  have  been  devised 
which  are  scarcely  less  perfect  than  those  used  in  the  Cali- 
fornia orange  districts.  One  of  the  best  of  these  is  the  re- 
sult of  the  labors  and  experiments  of  Professor  A.  E.  Blount, 
of  the  Agricultural  College  at  Las  Cruces,  New  Mexico,  and 
is  illustrated  in  the  accompanying  diagram.  In  this  case  the 
water  is  carried  in  small  open  ditches,  and  the  furrows  are 

317 


APPENDIX 

extended  in  circles  around  each  tree,  but  the  water  is  never 
allowed  to  touch  the  bark.  This  method  is,  perhaps,  better 
adapted  to  the  general  needs  of  the  arid  region  than  the 
more  expensive  plan  of  the  Californians.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  modern  New  Mexico  method  was  developed  in 
the  midst  of  Indian  and  Spanish  settlements,  which  still  pur- 
sue the  methods  of  antiquity  without  the  slightest  abatement 
of  their  evils. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  results  of  irrigation,  in  a  social 
and  economic  way,  is  its  influence  upon  the  density  of  popu- 
lation. The  densest  population  in  the  eastern  States  obtains 
in  Rhode  Island,  where  there  are  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  persons  to  each  square  mile.  In  a  representative  locality 
of  southern  California,  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  older 
settled  irrigated  districts,  there  are  five  hundred  persons  to 
the  square  mile,  practically  all  of  them  engaged  in  horticult- 
ure by  means  of  irrigation.  The  Nile  lands  of  Egypt  sup- 
port a  population  of  twelve  hundred  and  twenty-seven  persons 
to  the  square  mile.  There  is,  therefore,  no  risk  whatever  in 
predicting  that  the  arid  lands  of  the  West  will  ultimately 
sustain  much  the  densest  population  in  the  United  States. 

While  the  perfect  conditions  for  the  irrigation  industry 
exist  only  in  an  arid  land,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  same 
methods  can  and  will  be  used  largely  in  the  eastern  portion 
of  the  United  States.  There  is  seldom  a  year  when  large 
districts  east  of  the  Mississippi  do  not  suffer  heavy  losses 
from  the  lack  of  rain  at  the  time  when  it  is  needed.  What 
irrigation  can  accomplish  under  such  conditions  has  been 
strikingly  illustrated  by  Dr.  Clarke  Gapen,  Superintendent  of 
the  State  Insane  Asylum  at  Kankakee,  Illinois.  This  gentle- 
man became  convinced  that  if  he  could  control  the  moisture 
during  the  dry  period  of  the  Illinois  summer,  he  could  readi- 
ly produce,  on  the  farm  operated  in  connection  with  the  pub- 
lic institution,  the  large  quantities  of  late  vegetables  which 

318 


APPENDIX 

he  Lad  been  in  the  habit  of  purchasing  for  cash.  He  ob- 
tained an  inexpensive  pumping -plant  and  engaged  the  ser- 
vices of  a  practised  irrigator.  The  result  was  the  saving  of 
an  annual  expenditure  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for  farm 
products,  so  that  the  irrigation  system  more  than  paid  for  it- 
self the  first  year.  Dr.  Gapen  has  stated  that  the  experiment 
convinced  him  "  that  if  land  is  worth  one  hundred  dollars 
per  acre  in  Illinois  without  irrigation,  it  is  worth  five  hundred 
dollars  with  it."  If  this  enterprising  official  had  suggested 
ten  years  before  that  irrigation  was  necessary  in  Illinois,  lie 
would  have  been  regarded  as  a  proper  subject  for  one  of  the 
padded  cells  in  his  own  asylum. 

The  local  application  of  irrigation  is  now  frequently  dis- 
cussed in  the  farm  journals  of  Ohio,  New  York,  and  other  east- 
ern States.  The  art  has  been  employed  for  a  number  of  years 
in  the  most  profitable  market-gardens  about  Boston.  The 
western  friends  of  irrigation  have  the  utmost  confidence  that 
during  the  next  century  their  methods  will  be  extensively 
adopted  in  the  East,  resulting  in  a  very  great  reduction  of  the 
average  farm  unit,  in  the  assurance  of  much  larger  and  better 
crops,  and  in  wonderful  social  gains. 


INDEX 


ADAMS,  EDWARD  F.,  quoted,  130. 

Africa,  13. 

Agua  Fria  River,  Arizona,  239. 

Anaheim,  founding  and  character 
of,  94. 

Ancient  Canals  in  Arizona,  35. 

Anderson,  R.A.,  291. 

Auimas  River,  New  Mexico,  229. 

Antelope  Valley  of  California,  140. 

Aridity: — Effect  on  settlement  of 
Middle  West,  17  ;  key  to  institu- 
tions of  the  West,  30. 

Arizona : — Likeness  to  region  of  the 
Nile,  237  ;  northern  part  of  terri- 
tory, 238 ;  Sfclt  River  Valley,  238  ; 
its  irrigation  systems,  239 ;  im- 
portance of  storage  plans,  239- 
240 ;  climate  and  orange  culture, 
241;  a  great  fig  orchard,  242; 
largo  farms  of  the  present  and 
small  ones  of  the  future,  242- 
243  ;  the  people  of  the  territory, 
243. 

Arkansas  Valley,  155. 

Asia  Minor,  32. 

Austin,  Nevada,  195. 

Australasia,  13. 

Australia,  Village  Settlement  in,  288. 

Aztecs  in  Mexico,  34. 

BAILEY,   Professor    L.    II.,  quoted, 

177. 

Baldwin,  Historian,  34. 
Bear  Flag,  California's  day  of,  94. 
Beuverhead  Valley,  Montana,  2i>3. 


Big  Horn  Basin,  Wyoming,  213. 

Billings,  Montana,  227. 

"Billy  the  Kid,"  231. 

Bitter  Root  Valley,  Montana,  225. 

Blue    Grass    Region   of    Kentucky 

compared  with  arid  region  as  to 

fertility,  39. 

Boise  City,  capital  of  Idaho,  183. 
Boone,  Daniel,  15. 
Boyd,  David,  historian  of  the  Gree- 

ley  Colony,  88. 
Bozeman,  Montana,  225. 
Brisbane,  Albert,  77. 
Brook  Farm,  78-257. 
Bruneau  River,  Nevada,  199. 
Budd,  Governor,  131. 
Bully  Creek  Valley,  Oregon,  192. 
Butte,  Montana,  226. 

CACIIK  LA  POUDRE  Valley,  Colorado, 
155. 

Caldwell,  Idaho,  183. 

California : —  Why  so  little  under- 
stood, 121 ;  influence  of  former 
literature  on  the  subject,  123 ; 
speculative  tendencies  of  the  past, 
128  ;  burdens  of  fruit-growers  be- 
fore co-operation  was  employed, 
130 ;  valuable  lessons  of  the  last 
twenty  years,  131;  compared  with 
France,  131  ;  agricultural  settle- 
ment in  1880-90,  132;  profitable 
lines  of  production,  133  ;  future 
of  the  olive  industry,  134;  com- 
petitors in  fruit-growing,  135 ; 


321 


INDEX 


the  mining  industry,  136 ;  ten- 
dencies of  future  growth,  137; 
the  coast  region,  137  ;  the  Santa 
Clara  Valley,  138;  Southern  Cal- 
ifornia, 139  ;  Antelope  Valley, 
140;  Sacramento  Valley,  141;  ir- 
rigation in  Sacramento  Valley,  143; 
the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  148  ;  birth 
of  niisiii  industry,  144;  effects  of 
fall  in  wheat  prices,  144  ;  possi- 
bilities of  transportation  canals, 
145  ;  eastern  slope  of  Sierra  Ne- 
vada, 146;  future  of  Colorado 
Desert,  147.  See  "Evolution  of 
Southern  California,"  92. 

Gammas  Prairie,  Idaho,  179. 

Campbell,  Douglas,  quoted,  32. 

Carey,  ex-Senator  J.  M.,  213-220. 

Carlsbad,  New  Mexico,  235. 

Carson  City,  Nevada,  201. 

Carson  River,  Nevada,  199. 

Carthaginians,  34. 

Chaffey  Brothers  in  Australia,  289. 

Chipman,  General  N.  P.,  141. 

Chnarron  River,  New  Mexico,  230. 

City  and  Suburban  Uomes  Company, 
274. 

City  Creek  in  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
Utah,  51. 

Cody,  William  F.,  213. 

Clarke's  Fork  of  the  Columbia,  176- 
224. 

Ccrmr  d'Alene  Lnkc,  176. 

Colonization  : — Three  great  eras  of, 
12;  impulse  of  American  move- 
ments, 12  ;  settlement  of  Atlantic 
Coast,  14  ;  the  movement  beyond 
the  Alleghanierf,  14;  settlement  of 
Mississippi  Valley,  17;  causes  of 
emigration  movements,  49  ;  ten- 
dencies of  present  movement  from 
abroad,  247. 

Colorado  : — The  new  day  in,  150;  ef- 
fect of  railroad  buildiivg  in,  151 ; 
scenery  and  climate  of,  153  ;  min- 
eral resources  of,  154  ;  the  Arkan- 
sas Valley,  155;  San  Luis  Valley, 
166;  the  Western  Slope,  156;  the 
laud  of  peaches,  158 ;  local  pa- 


triotism, 160;  present  economic 
tendencies,  161. 

Colorado  Canyon,  238. 

Colorado  Desert,  147. 

Colorado  Springs,  Colorado,  152. 

Columbia  River  Valley,  188. 

Comstock  lode,  production  of,  195. 

Co-operation  : — Influence  of  aridity 
in  favoring,  31  ;  comparisons  with 
conditions  in  Holland,  32;  Utah 
commercial  examples,  64;  as  em- 
ployed in  the  Greeley  Colony,  Col- 
orado, 89  ;  experience  of  the  Ana- 
heim, California,  settlers,  95  ;  how 
utilized  at  Riverside,  California, 
97 ;  California  fruit  exchanges, 
104  ;  colonization  with  co-opera- 
tive capital,  260  ;  the  principle  im- 
portant to  new  communities,  281 ; 
the  recent  experience  of  Ireland, 
291 ;  its  adaptation  to  Anglo- 
Saxon  instincts  and  traditions, 
300  ;  its  relation  to  future  civil- 
ization, 309. 

Creoles,  French,  early  settlement  of, 
in  Ohio  Valley,  15. 

Cuba,  1 3. 

DAKOTA,  growth  of,  17. 
Dakota,  irrigation  in,  117. 
Damascus,  the  effects  of  irrigation 

in,  41. 

Deccan,  Lands  of  the,  86. 
Denver,  Colorado,  150,  154,  161. 
DCS  Chutes  River,  Oregon,  193. 
Dewey,  Admiral,  297. 

EDEN,  Garden  of,  the  result  of  irri- 
gation, 42. 

Ecgleston,  Edward,  quoted,  50. 
Egypt,  34. 

Elko  County,  Nevada,  195. 
Ellensburg,  Washington,  187. 
El  Paso,  Texas,  231. 
Emigration  Canyon,  Utah,  63. 
Esmeralda  County,  Nevada,  195. 
Eureka,  Nevada,  195. 


FAYOOM,  Province  of,  86. 


322 


INDEX 


Finncy  County,  Kansas,  109. 
Flasjg,  Jack,  iu  the  Rustlers'  War, 

210. 

Flagstaff,  Arizona,  238. 
Flathead  River,  Montana,  223. 
Fourier,  Franfois  Marie  Charles,  77. 

GADSDEX  PCJRCHASK,  22. 

Gallatiu  Valley,  Montana,  223-225. 

Garden  City,  Kansas,  109-113. 

Germany,  labor  colonies  of,  287. 

Gila  River,  Arizona,  238. 

Gill,  Thomas  P.,  291. 

Gould,  Dr.  Elgin  R.  L.,  274-295. 

Grand  Junction,  Colorado,  157. 

Grand  River,  Colorado,  157. 

Great  Falls,  Montana,  227. 

Great  Plains,  rise  of  irrigation  on,  106. 

Greeley,  Horace:  —  Phalanx  move- 
ment supported  by,  77  ;  encour- 
ages the  Colorado  project,  80  ;  last 
letter  to  Meeker,  90. 

Greeley  Colony  of  Colorado:  —  Its 
relation  to  the  phalanx  movement 
of  the  forties,  77;  Meeker  pro- 
poses the  undertaking  to  Greeley, 
80  ;  the  colony  plan  compared 
with  the  Fourier  ideal,  81  ;  publi- 
cation of  prospectus,  83  ;  irriga- 
tion troubles,  84;  triumph  of  the 
"  Greeley  potato,"  85  ;  social  life 
in,  87  ;  influence  of  colony  on  de- 
velopment of  Colorado,  90. 

Green  River,  Colorado,  157. 


N,  J.  J.,  202. 

Hale,  Dr.  Edward  Everett,  connec- 

tion with    Plymouth    Colony    of 

Idaho,  181. 

Half  employed,  army  of,  245. 
Hall,  William  Hammond,  145. 
Hatch,  A.  T.,  141. 
Helena,  Montana,  226. 
Hilgard,  Prof.  E.  W.,  quoted,  33,  35, 

37. 
Holland,  labor  colonies  of,  286;  com- 

pared to  Southern  California,  92. 
Homestead    law,  effect  on   emigra- 

tion of,  17. 


Honey  Lake  Valley  of  California, 
146. 

Hood  River,  Oregon,  193. 

"  Horse-heaven  "  Country  of  Wash- 
ington, 186. 

Hudson  Bay  Company,  180. 

Htimboldt,  Nevada,  town  of,  201. 

liuiuboldt  River,  Nevada,  199. 

IDAHO  : —  Contrast  between  north 
and  south,  174;  wonderful  water 
supply,  175;  the  forest  area,  176; 
the  prune  district,  177;  climate  and 
healthfulness,  178;  Upper  Snake 
River,  178  ;  four  periods  of  settle- 
ment, 180;  new  Plymouth,  181; 
the  "  old  -  timer,"  182  ;  cities  and 
towns,  183. 

Idaho  Falls,  Idaho,  178. 

Illinois,  growth  of.  after  Revolution, 
15. 

Incas  in  South  America,  34. 

Indiana,  growth  of,  after  Revolution, 
15. 

Industrial  independence  secured  by 
irrigation,  43. 

Inyo  County,  California,  147. 

Iowa,  growth  of,  17. 

Irish  Agricultural  Organization  So- 
ciety, 291. 

Irrigation : — The  miracle  of,  41  ; 
practical  methods  of,  see  Appen- 
dix ;  Damascus,  the  product  of, 
42;  it  made  the  beauties  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  42 ;  opposed  to 
land  monopoly,  43  ;  as  an  insur- 
ance of  crops,  43  ;  unfavorable  to 
employment  of  servile  labor,  44  ; 
its  influence  on  social  life,  45; 
foundation  of  scientific  agricult- 
ure, 47 ;  Mormons,  the  American 
pioneers  of,  55 ;  comparison  of 
cost  of  private  and  co-operative 
systems,  86. 

JEFFERSON,  President,  takes  initiative 

in  Western  exploration,  23. 
Jefferson  Valley,  Montana,  223. 
John  Day  River,  Oregon,  198. 


323 


INDEX 


Johnson  County,  Wyoming,  212. 
Jones,  Governor  John  E.,  199. 

KANSAS,  growth  of,  17. 
Kansas,  irrigation  in,  110. 
Kentucky,  growth  of,  after  Revolu- 
tion, 15. 
Kootenai  River,  Montana,  224. 

LA  PLATA  RIVER,  New  Mexico,  229. 

Lassen  County,  California,  146. 

Lewis  and  Clarke,  tho  famous  jour- 
ney of,  23. 

Lewiston,  Idaho,  183. 

Libyan  Desert,  36. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  a  type  of  set- 
tlers engaged  in  great  era  of  col- 
onization, 17. 

Lincoln  County,  Nevada,  195. 

Los  Angeles,  California,  103. 

Louisiana  Purchase,  22. 

MACAULAY,  LORD,  quoted,  245. 

Madison  Valley,  Montana,  223. 

Malheur  River  Valley,  Oregon,  192. 

Manhattan  Valley,  Montana,  225. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  294. 

Maxwell  Land  Grant,  230. 

Mead,  Elwood  : —  Service  in  Agri- 
cultural College  of  Colorado,  215  ; 
important  work  as  State  engineer 
of  Wyoming,  217-220. 

Mocker,  Nathan  Cook: — Experience 
with  Trumbull  Phalanx,  79  ;  first 
trip  to  the  Far  West,  80  ;  origini- 
ates  Colorado  project,  80;  death 
of,  91. 

Mesa  City,  Arizona,  239. 

Milk  River  Valley,  Montana,  223. 

Mills,  workingmen's  hotels  of  D.  0., 
274. 

Minnesota,  growth  of,  17. 

Missoula,  Montana,  227. 

Missouri  River  in  Montana,  223- 
226. 

Modjcska,  the  California  colony  of 
Madame,  256. 

Modoc  County,  California,  146. 

Moeris  Lake,  36. 


Mohammedans,  their  admiration  for 
Damascus,  42. 

Monroe,  President  James,  22. 

Montana: — The  prosperity  of,  222; 
influence  of  mountain  topography, 
222;  early  ditches,  223;  oppor- 
tunities for  settlers,  224 ;  fruit 
culture,  225  ;  Agricultural  College 
of,  225  ;  important  valleys,  225  ; 
social  and  political  life,  226;  cities 
and  towns,  227. 

Moors,  34. 

Mormons  of  Utah :— Their  common- 
wealth, 51 ;  pioneers  of  American 
irrigation,  51 ;  illustrate  natural 
economic  tendencies  of  irriga- 
tion, 52 ;  arrival  of  first  party  in 
Salt  Lake  Valley,  52 ;  system  of 
landownership,  57  ;  plan  of  diver- 
sified farms,  61 ;  opposed  to  min- 
ing, 63  ;  financial  results  of  their 
labors  for  forty  years,  67  ;  four 
leading  principles  of  industrial 
system,  70;  mortgage  of  indebted- 
ness, 71 ;  relation  of  church  or- 
ganization to  industrial  success, 74. 

Moscow,  Idaho,  184. 

Mountain  Home,  Idaho,  183. 

Musser,  A.  Milton.,  67. 

NAMPA,  Idaho,  183. 

Navajo,  Indians,  New  Mexico,  235. 

Nebraska,  growth  of,  17. 

Nebraska  irrigation,  115. 

Netherlands,  civilization  of,  com- 
pared with  arid  region,  32. 

Nevada  : — The  potential  greatness 
of,  194  ;  unfounded  prejudices  in, 
194;  silver  production  of  tin; 
past  in,  195  ;  undeveloped  mineral 
wealth,  1% ;  agricultural  resources 
of,  198;  unused  waters  of,  199; 
diversion  of  Nevada  wealth  to 
other  localities,  202 ;  the  railroad 
situation  of,  203  ;  future  of  the 
State  of,  205. 

New  Mexico : — Inadequacy  of  water 
supplies,  228  ;  the  northwestern 
counties,  2'J'.»  ;  the  !:ui«l  grants  in, 


INDEX 


230;    the  Rio  Grande  Valley  of, 

230;  the  Pecos   Valley  of,  281; 

the  social  fabric  of,  2:;:». 
Newell,  Frederick  Hayncs,  on  \v;iter 

supply  of  the  plains,  113,  111. 
Nt-z  l'ert'6  Reservation,  170. 
Nija,  Fray  Marcos  de,  228. 
Nile  River,  silt  in,  36. 
Ninety-seventh  ineredian,  19-21. 
Nordhoff,  Charles,  123-128. 
North,  Judge,  founder  of  Riverside 

Colony,  97. 
North  Yakima,  Washington,  187. 

OHIO,  growth  of,  after  Revolution, 
15. 

Olives,  future  of,  134. 

Ontario,  California,  103. 

Oquirrh  Mountains,  53. 

Orange  culture  in  California,  begin- 
Hing  of,  100. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  16. 

Oregon  : — Humid  and  arid  sections 
of,  185 ;  climate  and  products  of, 
191  ;  unused  water  supplies  of, 
192;  chances  for  development  of, 
193;  arid  region  of,  190. 

Owyhee  River,  Nevada,  199. 

PALESTINE,  34. 

Palestine,  resemblance  between  Salt 

Lake  Valley  and,  53. 
Palmer,    General  William  J.,   152- 

202. 

Palouse  country  of  Idaho,  179. 
Parkman,  Francis,   author    of    the 

Oregon  Trail,  23. 
Payette,  Idaho,  183. 
Pecos  Valley,  New  Mexico,  231. 
Pend  Orcillc  Lake,  176. 
Pendleton,  Oregon,  191. 
Phalanx  movement,  77,  78. 
Phu?nix,  capital  of  Arizona,  238. 
Pike,  Zebulon,  23. 
Platte  Valley,  Colorado,  155. 
Plumas  County,  California,  146. 
Plunkett,  the   Right  Hon.   Horace, 

291. 
Plymouth  Colony  of  Idaho,  181. 


Pocatello,  Idaho,  183. 

Pomona,  California,  103. 

Portland,  Oregon,  186. 

Prescott,  Arizona,  288. 

Prescott,  Historian,  34. 

Prickly  Valley,  Montana,  223. 

Prosser,  Washington,  187. 

Provo,  Utah,  166. 

Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  235. 

Puget  Sound  region,  185. 

QCINN  RIVER,  Nevada,  199. 

RAIN-MAKINO  experiments,  108. 
Raymond,    Henry   J.,  debate    with 

Greeley,  79. 

Redlands,  California,  103. 
Reed,  Thomas  B.,  quoted,  119. 
Reid,  Whitelaw,  quoted,  237. 
Rio  Grande  River,  New  Mexico,  230. 
Rio  Verde  River,  Arizona,  239. 
Riverside  Colony  of  California,  97. 
Robertson,  James,  15. 
Robinson,  Solon,  79. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  297. 
Rustlers'  War,  209. 

SACRAMENTO  VALLEY  of  California, 

141. 

Salmon  River,  Nevada,  199. 
Salt  Lake  City,  the  plan  of,  68. 
Salt  River,  Arizona,  239. 
Salt  River  Valley  of  Arizona,  238. 
San  Bernardino  Valley,  92. 
San  Joaquin   Valley  of   California, 

143. 

San  Juan  River,  Colorado,  157. 
San  Juan  River  in  New  Mexico,  229. 
San  Luis  Valley,  Colorado,  155. 
San  Timoteo  Hills,  92. 
Santa   Clara   Valley   of   California, 

138. 

Semi-arid  region,  boundaries  of,  109. 
Sevier,  John,  15. 
Shawhan,  Benjamin  P.,  connection 

with  Plymouth  Colony  of  Idaho, 

181. 

Sheridan  County,  Wyoming,  212. 
Shoshone  Falls,"  the  Great,  176. 


INDEX 


Smythe,  William  E.,  connection  with 
Plymouth  Colony  of  Idaho,  181. 

Snake  River,  175. 

Social  life,  effect  of  irrigation  on,  46. 

Socialism  not  suited  to  development 
of  new  countries,  302. 

Soils,  effect  of  aridity  on,  37. 

South,  America,  13. 

Southern  California: — Evolution  of, 
92  ;  character  and  future  of,  139. 

Spice  Islands,  13. 

Spokane,  Washington,  190. 

Staked  Plains  of  Texas,  231. 

Stanford,  Mrs.  Leland,  141. 

Surplus  people,  247. 

TABOR,  II.  A.  W.,  161. 
Taylor,  L.  E.,  199. 
Tennessee,  growth  of,  after  Revolu- 
tion, 15. 

Texas  irrigation,  118. 
Tithing-house  scrip,  63. 
Toltecs  in  Mexico,  34. 
Travel,  statistics  of,  20. 
Truckee  River,  Nevada,  199. 
Trumbull  Phalanx  of  Ohio,  79. 
Tucson,  Arizona,  238. 

UINTA  country  of  Utah,  170. 

Umatilla  Valley,  Oregon,  192. 

University  of  Arizona  experiments 
in  analyzing  silt  of  Colorado  River, 
40. 

Utah:— The  pleasant  land  of,  164; 
the  scene  from  Capitol  Hill,  164; 
Utah,  Salt  Lake,  and  Weber  val- 
leys, 166  ;  mineral  resources,  166; 
the  climate,  167  ;  agricultural  con- 
tradictions, 168  ;  land  open  to  set- 
tlement, 169;  irrigation  laws  and 
customs,  171. 

VAN  DYKK,  T.  S..  quoted,  128. 
Vermejo  River,  New  Mexico,  230. 
Virgin  River,  Nevada,  199. 
Virginia  City,  Nevada,  195. 


WALKKR  RIVER,  Nevada,  199. 

Walla  Walla  Valley,  Washington, 
187. 

Warren,  Francis  E.,  220. 

Wasatch  Mountains,  53. 

Washington: — Arid  region  of,  185; 
"Horse-Heaven"  country,  186; 
important  streams,  187 ;  soil  and 
climate  of,  188;  products  and 
markets  of,  189. 

Water  Laws  :  — The  struggle  for 
water,  214  ;  where  statesmanship 
failed,  215 ;  evils  of  litigation, 
216;  the  Wyoming  example, 
217. 

Webber,  Thomas  G.,  65. 

Weiser,  Idaho,  183. 

Wells,  Captain  James  M.,  180. 

Wells,  Governor  Heber  M.,  71. 

Wenatehee  River,  Washington,  187. 

Western  slope  of  Colorado,  166. 

Wheatland,  Wyoming,  213. 

Willamette  River,  Oregon,  186. 

Willow  Creek  Valley/Oregon,  192. 

Windmill  irrigation,  111. 

Woodruff,  Wilford,  55. 

Wyoming: — Law-giver  of  the  arid 
region,  207 ;  the  stock  -  raising 
industry  of,  208;  the  Rustlers' 
War  in,  209;  products  and  devel- 
opment of,  212;  Big  Horn  Basin, 
212;  excellence  of  water  laws 
of,  218 ;  the  State's  influential 
position  in,  221. 

YAKIMA  VALLKY  of  Washington, 
187. 

Ybarrola,  Senor  de,  105. 

Yellow  River  of  China,  36. 

Young,  Brigham,  estimate  of  char- 
acter and  achievements  of,  72. 

Yuma,  Arizona,  238. 

ZION'S  Co-operative   Mercantile  In- 
stitution, ('.."». 
Zuui  Indians,  235. 


THE   END 


BY  POULTNEY  BIGELOW 


WHITE  MAN'S  AFRICA.  Illustrated  by  R.  CATON 
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both 
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BY  A.  H.  SAVAGE   LANDOR 


IN  THE  FORBIDDEN  LAND.  An  Account  of  a 
Journey  into  Tibet,  Capture  by  the  Tibetan  Lamas  and 
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